nowadays it's funny to think people expected doom to die out because of more technically advanced games, considering it's community is way more active and healthy than both quake and duke 3D's. course i'm very glad the community stood the test of time, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the wide variety of masterpieces we have today also the mirror gag at 5:20 is really funny but it also made me realize how messed up doom looks when flipped
@@DinnerForkTongue - Ironically, moddability could mean that the so-called "black sheep", Doom 3, may well outlive the "popular new kids", Doom 2016 and Eternal :D
Yes, it seems pretty crazy, but there really was a time when Doom was expected to fade away and the community was showing signs of aging and stagnation. This was pretty much averted by the arrival of Doom 3... an achievement that is often forgotten by today's Doom kids. While it seemed natural to move onto newer game engines, newer games' modding didn't have the same degree of accessibility as Doom did. Quake's early editors, in particular, seemed quite obtuse and cumbersome to use.
It boggles my mind how badass Mark Klem's work was and still is, despite him only being involved for such a short amount of time. Almost every one of his tracks is a welcome addition even over 20 years later.
@@reddoomedearth4020 "Under Death" is particularly amazing. That track is so soul-crushing and haunting, yet sprinkled with a bit of grandiosity towards the end. It sounds like music that the Devil wrote for your funeral, as a way for him and all of his demons to mock your efforts and accomplishments.
@@kopfdertoten466 Under Death is criminally underrated. Without it, Waste Disposal Facility (Solar Struggle) and Living Library (DBP59 Zeppelin Armada) would not be as stunning as they are with this BGM.
It's the Windsor & Keranen Show! Fun stuff about Requiem: Map23, If I'm remembering correctly, a lot of people were very displeased with Dario over the use of the ghost monsters and the use of the Icon of Sin in that mapslot. Definitely some sort of miscommunication going on here. Map24, story goes there's textured used in this map that weren't allowed to be used for any other map in the WAD. Makes me wonder what the story was behind this decision. Map10, it was indeed corrupted and Windsor was a wizard in fixing it. No idea if Flaharty phoned this map in and sent it for any number of reasons, but to this day, to my knowledge, he's still been unheard of from the community. Map19, Skinny Puppy is named after a Canadian electro-industrial band. Map21, just a note, iirc the skull is always visible on the automap. However, it really deserves the worst map in the WAD. It is *ridiculously* buggy. You can't get 100% kills due to a teleport ambush closet being tied to deep water, which enemies can't hear or see through. If you try to fix it, you mess up the sky in another area and mess up the bridge as well. You can't get 100% secrets, either. The REJECT table is so fubared that speedrun demos recorded on it would ALWAYS desync even if you play it the exact same way it was recorded. You can soft lock in this map by going back to the blue key area and taking the red cross teleport. Lastly, you can't even get 100% items of you wanted to as a few health/armor bonuses are completely unreachable. It's by far the worst map in the WAD imo, and for it to supposedly be the biggest one in the WAD, that's really saying something about the lack of communication and leadership in this entire project. People thought with Quake coming out that the Doom community would die out and everyone would migrate to the shiny new toy, which is why this project is named as such. As we can all clearly see, this game isn't going anywhere and is, in my opinion, thriving brighter than Quake's community. I'd recommend everyone giving this one a shot for the piece of history that is holds, but I wouldn't linger longer than you feel the need to stick around for.
@MtPain27 XD Obviously! Realistically, I believe it was the textures Czerwonka made himself for his own map that weren't allowed to be touched anywhere else in the WAD. Makes the most sense, but I feel the project could've used them in other places, too
Requiem is such an interesting subject from a historical perspective. It encapsulates some of the best and worst aspects of the 90s, and the ending of the Doom mapping golden age. The fact that it was so hard to finally finish the megawad it's a direct result of the massive impact that Quake and 3D games in general had in the Doom mapping community during the late 90s. By 1996, almost 2k WADs were uploaded to the /idgames archive. By 1997 this dropped by half, and it would reach its lowest point by 2002. Interestingly, Doom 3 was announced in E3 2002, and the WAD upload rate started rising again during the early 2000s.
@@DinnerForkTongue I think you could call it a "golden age" in the sense of golden age comic books! The 90s was a time when Doom maps were popular, relatively mainstream compared to now, naive and inelegant but bursting with enthusiasm. If we were to talk about "golden" in the sense of quality, I mean...I'm a 90s kid, but the 2010s was a ridiculously good decade for Doom mapping, and the 2020s have been pretty awesome so far too. I love Alien Vendetta, there's at least a project or two a year of comparable quality now.
@@DinnerForkTongue I use ''golden time'' to refer to the mainstream popularity and surplus of activity something gets during its premiering days. The early 90s for Doom were superbly active and relevant. Every major gaming magazine was talking about Doom then, and everyone wanted to be a mapper and create WADs for it. Quality wise it was a rather rough age, but it did represent an exceptionally active time for the old community that wanted to experiment and create despite lacking experience of proper tools. Alien Vendetta for me, marks the start of a new era, as Doom would become ''mainstream'' again with the announcement of Doom 3, and activity would finally start rising again.
@@endless_doom5337 Oh, ok. Yeah, that's fair, in terms of overall popularity and not just mod/mapset quality, the nomenclature applies perfectly. In that vein, after Doom 3 came out, Classic Doom did see a surge in popularity but it remained mostly niche to us Doomers. Can that be called a second Golden Age?
@@DinnerForkTongue I would probably call it something like a Silver or Bronze age, perhaps. It marked a new surge in activity, but it wouldn't reach the same level of community uploads as it did in the 90s. I would take more than a decade, until Doom 2016 came out, to return to those extremely active levels. The community right now is in something like a new renaissance.
How ironic that the megawad designed to pay respect to the classic doom's final moment has become one of the earliest examples of classic doom modding. Only if people back in 90s knew about the simple fact "Doom is eternal."
Well said! It's certainly funny that Requiem ended up not being remotely the last one, but once the humor of it fades away it makes you realize just how lucky this game is - and how lucky we are for having gotten hooked on it.
@@CammyWritesMusic - Well, back then it really seemed that Doom could be on its way out. Source ports had not yet taken off, and most younger gamers weren't really interested in some 1993 DOS game that ran in 320x200 resolution. Doom really seemed to be part of a bygone era as the year 2000 approached...
The remake of the soundtrack done by all three original composers, Requiem Reimagined, is definitely worth checking out. Also a protip for name pronunciations: Google Translate's TTS works quite well to get the basic gist right.
Whenever you mention wads designed to pay tribute to the 'obsolescence' of Doom to Quake and the like, with Doom quietly dying and Quake and Duke Nukem manufacturing fan content at industrial speed, I can't help but wonder what that timeline is like.
I would prefer a timeline where all three were flushed with content. Definitely a ton of great stuff for Duke and Quake, but not nearly as popular or accessible as Doom. Or even a proper continuation of the style of Strife.
The introspective look I took back on my time playing Requiem brought on by the sight of this video in my sub-box caused me to realize I could only remember two maps with certainty: the Casali map, and the prison map with tight halls and no ammo. The second one of course was Procrustes Chambers, but the description could be applied to rather too much of Requiem as a whole. It's always fun to see you tackle these super-oldschool wads - it's a shame there are only so many of them, because the mixture of praising sleeper hits, examining iconic successes, and thrashing baffling failures is always a great time! A little bit of something for everyone. I feel like I should replay the Memento Mori trilogy (we all know Requiem is MM3, let's be real), because everybody has an opinion on which of the three is the best one, but I don't. At least it's easy to tell Kama Sutra is the best in the Hell Revealed trilogy; the MMs are pretty close.
I'd say that, with all the Keränen and Czerwonka maps, it's half MM3 and half Dystopia 4. Map 08 is essentialy a remake of a previous Keränen map from Dystopia 3, and his other Requiem maps are similar to his Dystopia 3 stuff too.
Back in the "old days" there were rumors that MM3 would be a levelpack for Quake, from what I remember... seems to be just an urban legend at this point, so yeah - Requiem is the real MM3 now :P
@AlexeiVoronin That actually sounds like it could have been pretty cool. Assuming the Innocent Crew and Co. would have carried their existing design philosophies into Quake, a more sophisticated engine would have given them a whole new playground of complex mechanics to mess around with, while the more technically demanding nature of Quake would probably have forced them to cool it with the scale of their maps for the sake of everyone's PCs. Both sound like good things for Memento Mori.
I’d say it’s disappointing neither of those games ended up having a modding scene nearly as prolific as doom. a lot of activity with quake has been posthumous interest
@@DinnerForkTongue You didn't have to remind me of BTSXE3...since it's taking so long to come out, I'm concerned that it won't have such a blasting soundtrack E2 and especially E1 had, much less the "remastered" versions that Kira/Velvetic made long ago
@@tobiyoarcangel A lot of the BTSX E3 music was written 10+ years ago at the same time as E1+2 (some of it was uploaded on Jimmy and essel's channels years ago), and if you haven't checked out the 5-map demo of E3 yet, I can assure you the music is still top-tier, especially the track for skillsaw's map.
@@TristanClarkMusic I checked some E3 tracks Esselfortium did (Toybox and Egypt are names that come to mind) but I don't know if more got out ever since then, and I never checked in Jimmy's channel. Thanks for the headsup!
This just made my day. I haven't had time to play Doom in months or really keep up with some of your recent videos. Requiem was one of the first megaWADs I ever played and it holds the honor of being the first one I ever completed. I love the music in this WAD. All these years later, I think this has some of the best MIDIs ever composed for Doom. Map 13 has my favorite track of the WAD. There is not a bad song on this soundtrack. Map 11 is my favorite in this WAD, and you didn't mention anything about the music, so I will. That's one of the best tracks with an awesome bluesy solo in it. I am not surprised that you disliked Ikka Keranen's combat encounters. His maps were visually brilliant, but have so many cramped corridors that he would fill with higher tier enemies. This is made worse with how little ammo are in those maps. Map 27 is the worst for me as I always run out of ammo. I will defend Map 13 despite it's issues. The MIDI on that level being my favorite in the entire WAD goes some way for me to give it compliments. You did not mention at the end of level the neat waterfall corridor. I thought that was an interesting attention of detail. The highlight of this video is Map 24. That map is the absolute worst in Requiem and used to break my spirits on playthroughs. I still remember the first time I beat it, I felt like I had survived a nightmare. There is so little health and ammo. As for the secret you mention, I did not know that existed until about 12 years after I had played Requiem cause it's so obscure. Even if you go into that map with a fair bit of ammo from the previous one, it is just a slog. YES the Hell Revealed people would have a fit over this map! I would've gave that map the F instead of Map 14. The Portal isn't that bad once you know all it's traps and you can at least just run through the exit if you don't want to deal with the final enemies. Overall, I still love this WAD despite it not being great. It was the first one I ever finished and could say I beat. I will always say Requiem has one of the best soundtracks in Doom. There is even a professionally recorded album of the tracks that was released a few years ago.
Agreed about Map14 and Map24. I wouldn't give Map14 an F grade. It's not great, but with foreknowledge, it's not too bad. Map24 definitely deserves an F in my book. That map is just unfun in every way. Even it's visuals are a turn off for me.
@@atifarshad7624 Yeah, I can defend Map 14 having played it so many times. Once you know the traps well and to save ammo, it's not as hard. Even if you're having a tough time, you can just run to the exit in the end and not bothering to 100% kill everything. Map 24 is hands down the worst. It is such a slog to play through. It was not until many years later I found out about the secret ammo cache in this level and I'd still argue it's not enough. I've never 100% killed everything in that map nor have I tried to. I always just try to finish that map at the bare minimum and get it over with.
I'll get the popcorn. A new Dean of Doom episode just appeared 😀 0:56 I started laughing when you zoomed in that chaingun. 5:21 Ok... flipped doom weapons give me a seizure. Ok, finished the review. I was hoping for you to review this wad. It was one of the firsts wads I played when I found sourceports and... It really shows it's age specially when pistol starting. I tried it once and realized how painfull map 24 is. I also didn't know that Requiem had so much issues during development. Another great episode. Keep up the good work. The Rebirth review when? 👀
The best part of the chaingun zoom is, it makes sense for it to be that small: It fires small and weak pistol bullets, so it's a machine pistol by any measure 💀
Awesome video, I did a play through of this WAD with Project Brutality 2.0 and it was so nice seeing these maps again, and seeing areas I had completely forgotten. I don't why playing through a wad is such a emotional trip for me
Great episode! Requiem reminds me of the mixed-bag nature of the Community Chest series. You never know what you're going to get when you enter a new map.
It’s kinda funny how this was supposed to be the “Requiem for doom wads” in the same way Final Doom was “The final chapter of the Doom series”. Yeah, hindsight’s 2020, but it’s weird to think that this would’ve been where we leave off on doom maps. We never thought there would be an Alien Vendetta, or a Scythe, or a Speed of Doom, or a Valiant, an equinox, a heartland, a Sunder, A Sunlust, a Going down, a struggle, an eveternity, an overboard or any other standout megawad you can think of. I guess it goes to show how timeless doom was. Even with the advent of quake, duke nukem, or thousands of other fps games, doom continues to live on…insert “Doom is eternal” comment here. -3- And yeah, this wad looks rough. I figured it would’ve been a highlight wad, but man does it look like a product of its time and rushed development.
The Mid-Late 90s were actually kind of a depressing time to be an FPS fan. People were splurging about how fully 3D games were the only way to go and anything with sprites was hot garbage from the past. Tons of people and review outlets significantly dinged games like Blood, Eradicator, and Shadow Warrior for not being fully 3D like Quake. When Half-Life, Sin, and Deus Ex all hit the stage in 98 people were so quick to dismiss and ignore any sprite based First person games it was depressing. With the above being said it made perfect sense that Keranen expected Doom to die out extremely fast in 97 especially with how 3D games were progressing. However, with the source code in hand and an already extremely mod friendly game it makes sense that DOOM managed to survive those dark years for sprite based FPS games (1996-2003~).
Yes but that was before the source code was released. I think it's the continuous new updates and new features that source ports bring that fuel mappers' creativities, or rather, allow those innate creativities to attain their full potential. The more ambitious the projects get, the more inspiring they are to the next generation.
The OST is easily the best part, yes. Little wonder that most tracks are used even today, such as Under Death appearing to _magnificent_ effect in both Zeppelin Armada and Solar Struggle, both easily 20+ years after Mark released the song.
"Parsimonious." I remember when the Doom wiki article for Go 2 It said that the map's Megaspheres must be used "with parsimony." Not knowing the word at the time, it sounded like a cooking instruction. It still makes me laugh.
Hey mtpain, i had a really long day today, im tired af, and it feels like the world is constantly trying to get something from me. It was really, really comforting to see a new video was up, almost as if I can spend time away from my troubles for awhile. Thank you mtpain, it must be a lot of work doing all this. Best wishes for you and this channel.
Requiem remains, to this very day, an amazing experience for any oldschool Doomer. I am quite disappointed by some of the comments I see here. Folks, please don't judge 1997 WADs by 2023 standards. It's a very, very dumb thing to do.
just completed map23... amazing... I'm so glad I'm experiencing this one for the 1st time with fancy additions such as Voxel Doom + Reshade (enhanced brightness saturation and sharpness) + FinalDoomer (Hellbound weapon set with Remote Detonator C4 Charges LOOOL) The maps are nice looking
oh and I forgot to add Explosive Barrels from Brutal Doom, which also features the Brutal Doom blood and gore (LOL) I tried other Blood mods such as NashGore and Bolognese but I ended up finding out that nothing quite compares to the BrutalDoom blood so I kept it
No, I do think I will. Times have changed, Requiem has aged horrendously and doesn't hold up at all, that you cannot honestly deny. Like Hell Revealed, Requiem should be played first and foremost out of curiosity for how things were done in the distant past, and only then does the Doomer decide if s/he likes it for what it is.
When this WAD, supposedly Doom modding's swan song, was released, I was literally a day old and yet here I am in adult life watching a video about it. I always felt that was a cool coincidence, long live Doom, eh? Also for fans of the soundtrack, I would encourage you to check out the Requiem Reimagined album, featuring remakes of every track with VSTs and live instruments, produced by the three composers along with JD Herrera. It's well worth a listen! th-cam.com/play/PLVDYINVKng7V03JGox-6zTAxMpRww0q0G.html
The thing that gets me about Requiem is how much its midis keep appearing in other megawads made recently and in the last decade or so. Some have even been in very recent projects. That, and this was one of the first custom wads (along with Reverie) I remember playing. Not a 'perfect' mapset but one that's beautiful in its own way - even if you don't understand its significance next to the release of Quake.
Heard the name Requiem in the world of Doom but this is my first time seeing anything from it. Would give it a go for a casual romp & any new Midis for Doom projects rather than other games are a plus. The inconsistencies are clear, but it's nice to delve back into the furthest reaches of Doom modding history. The modern experts (Well above my level of map design etc) learnt a lot from projects like this after all 🙂 Recently (finally) bought Quake & Quake II but I'd still fall back onto any Doom projects, the community that keeps on giving 😀
Reminder to do Memento Mori 2 at some point, best of the (unofficial) MM trilogy IMO. It's also somewhat inconsistent but has a lot of memorable and cool maps and is much better than MM1 overall.
Memento Mori II, for me, hits a _much_ stronger note than both the first one and Requiem. I enjoy playing it unironically. And I say this with zero nostalgia - I think it was 2020 when I first played MM2.
It's funny to think that Doom fans in the 90s thought Doom would go out of style and be replaced by Quake, considering that Doom has outlasted Quake in popularity, relevance, and its modding scene by a country mile. (Not that I dislike Quake - in fact, I'm hoping against hope that we get a proper Quake reboot, or even a Quake 5 at some point)
Thank you for another Dean on Doom episode Mt. Pain. I know these episodes are a labor of love to do, and knowing how much Requiem was at the time of conception is simply eye-opening and somewhat of a testament to how much Doom matters to this community. Something expected to be a final send-off yet here we are nearly 3 decades later still with more wads than we can do and handle, knowing these history notes is fascinating to me, thank you again for these episodes :)
You review wads that i have already extensively player, however you Always guve new light to them with their background history and your salient points. Thanks.
When I was a kid Requiem was one of those WADs whose existence alone I was impressed with. “Wow!! A whole set of fan made levels?” my pre-teen self thought. I created this mythic image of it in my head and dreamt of the day I’d sit down to play it. But then whatever happened and I didn’t play Doom stuff until I was much older and not even anything outside the IWADs at that. I finally played this about a year ago. And today I watched this and didn’t remember a single one of the maps as it had left absolutely no impression on me whatsoever. Oh well.
The first time I played Requiem I was coming off of the back of a Final Doom playthrough, and I was looking for another 90's era classic. One which would have a bit more polish than WADs like Memento Mori or Hell Revealed. I was incredibly impressed by map 01 and 03's thorough detailing and map 02's continuity and technical chops, but I ended up deciding to leave it for later after dying a lot to map 03's tight ammo allotment. Seeing this review makes me grateful I didn't commit myself to a full playthrough! Thanks for your ever-entertaining writing and editing, Dean.
You know, Requiem was a WAD I've been curious to play for years but just never got around to for some reason. Now, I'm fine leaving it alone haha. After seeing all its gimmickry and WTF moments, Den of the Skull looks like it could've served as a prototype for Magikal's Community Chest contributions. Also, I was really surprised to read that Adam Windsor has made maps as recently as 2020. For some reason, I thought he stopped mapping in the early 2000s, but that was cool to see otherwise. One thing's certain though, Requiem's soundtrack has aged better than the WAD itself. I can't even begin to count how many other projects have used those tracks. Props to Klem, Shaw and Doyle. They're some MIDI Wizards
@@DinnerForkTongue Possibly though some of these TC's are extensive enough to deserve a full episode, IMHO. I would love to see a Sawed-Off Wads episode for the PS1 version of Doom's exclusive levels.
Requiem, this has been one of my favourite megawads to go through and still is, I say it's pretty much a progenitor to Alien Vendetta in the sense that it is a collection of maps that for the most part pushed the boundaries of the Doom and showcased many neat mapping tricks that you don't see much in wads at the time (case in point Town of the Dead by Iikka Keranen, which still holds very well), and I always love a wad that has one or both of the Casalis to give me the excruciating punishment they dish out. Nevertheless, I won't deny that this is a wad that could have been done better if given proper management and there were communications between members of the team that got together to put create this megawad. Here's something for you, some mappers that were supposed to make contributions dropped out, resulting in Adam Windsor having to bring some of his maps that were originally intended to be in his one-man megawad Demonfear. Another issue I had with Requiem is also the same I have with Alien Vendetta, most of the maps are linear, but that's just a minor quibble. Den of the Skull, yeah, interesting concept, but it was brought down due to bugs and oversights that made the map felt like it was in its beta stage. Speaking of bugs, there's an issue in The Reactor, where you can get softlocked by being trapped in a lift forcing you to noclip, Militant Reprisal always felt like a contender for the worst map since a few of the secrets are unreachable and it was a mismash of themes strewned into an ugly mess. I like Doorway to Quake, it's a very good Doom translation of Quake's E1M6: The Door to Cththon, and I consider it a D difficulty since I play the wad continuously. Come to think of it, I feel doing pistol starts on wads made in the 90s isn't the best approach as they were never intended to be played like that and playing them how they're supposed to play makes them not as hard as you grade them. Nevertheless, good review on a megawad that seemed to be the Doom community's last hurrah as many transitioned to Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. Ironically, Doom is still kicking it, while not many maps for the other first-person shooters get made. Still waiting on Memento Mori 2 and Eternal Doom when you get to them.
7:48 Just one Correction: In map 09, the blue key room. Its a timed door. It should open after 30 seconds. I believe the command is "Door Close, Wait, Open."
One of the few ancient yet well-known megaWADs I dropped halfway through playing. While I have nothing but respect for it from a historical point of view, I found most of Requiem's obtuse level progression and penchant for narrow corridors to be far too annoying and the repetitive. Fortunately, I did retain enough gumption to at least witness MAP19, which honestly is enough to recommend people download the WAD to experience that map alone at the very least. You're a stronger man than I am, Pain. I simply couldn't stomach Requiem's warts anymore after MAP21 and called it quits.
I only like Last Resort because it inspired the remix Your Last Resort in TNT Revilution, and because it was popular enough to propel Doyle into sticking with the community until he refined his craft to the razor's edge that it is today. Nothing against Last Resort, it just doesn't tickle my tingle nerves.
I was waiting for this sooo long... Requiem may be one of my favorite WADs, and considering that this was made in 1997 with such primitive Doom editing tools makes it even more impressive. Thanks MtPain for covering all of these cool megawads :) Although I must say that some maps really should've been left out to deliver a better product.
How amazing wads based on an engine from 1993 are still being played and new map sets still come out every year. There is something about it's gameplay feel that is truly captivating and timeless. Glad I'm not the only who can't get enough of it. Anyway, hope you one day get to cover 'A.L.T.' from 2012 by Clan [B0S]. (Title stands for Absolute Life Transformation) Such a unique megawad! (even it the maps get a bit uneven in the middle). As a fever dream of death, it's existential atmosphere is unmatched though. ;) Closest I can compare it to in terms of narrative coherence and creativity is Going Down, but A.L.T. is more psychologically charged. It's not the best known, but it's my favorite megawad.
It was also features in the 'Our Top 25 Missed Cacowards' feature over at Doomworld, for some extra info (and praise). With October coming up, its a megawad to fit the mood. ^^ Anyway, love your videos, keep up the good work. ;)
I am new to classic Doom and was looking to see if you had a Dean of Doom episode on this very WAD last night! What an uncanny coincidence. I am bouncing between playing Vanilla Doom I on UV and playing wads with Brutal Doom on GZ Doom (disabling the new enemy types and the new weapon spawn replacements). I plan to beat both Doom I and II as intended but I also really like all of the mods and maps people have made for the game. It's weird to fully discover this game in my mid-late 20's when it's been out for so long, but I both appreciate and admire your work as it helps me to understand the culture Doom used to have... and it gives me insight into the 'classic' Doom community of today! Mt. Pain you are doing a service for the entire Doom community and helping guys like me get into the loop, thank you very much! 😎 Poison Processing is the Requiem map I am stuck on in Brutal Doom at the moment, tactically it's insanely fun and engaging. However, since "Brutal" Doomguy is made out of paper maché and hope, I get absolutely evaporated at some points. I noticed that the 90's mappers love to criss-cross enemy sight-lines like crazy, it leads to some interesting and thought-provoking engagements regarding taking good angles when you clear rooms. One might call getting thrown into a proverbial blender good practice, lol. Anyone in the comments have some other good wad recommendations for a newbie wanting to improve? >.>
Wahey! The madman got round to reviewing this one! Looking forward to it. Played this many, many years ago. Don't remember too much about it, but the bridges certainly leave a lasting impression.
I love the soundtrack of these 4 classics: Memento Mori 1 and 2, Requiem and Strain. And I haven't even played Requiem or Strain yet. And after this review, I'm not really moving either of these to the top of my "to play" list 😂 Also, I hope your bad experience with Thomas Moller's map doesn't discourage you from playing Obituary some day (if you haven't already) and maybe from covering it in your channel. It's a really interesting wad, imo, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it some day :)
We scored a lot of maps very differently. I think everything you said was correct, but I think we experienced them in different ways. I give my reviews in terms of a speedrunning/saveless perspective. So how the map plays with full map knowledge and a strategy in mind, since thats how I imagine the map creator would play it. Many maps play much much differently like that compared to blind or semi-blind. Many become much more tolerable, since the gameplay becomes more exciting on its own with a strategy in mind to dismantle it in the most efficient way. That being said, my favorite maps in the set were the Reactor, Hatred, and Skinny puppy, since they were all interesting to route and unique in their execution/atmosphere. The Portal and Fetal’s Remains were the hardest, but again I enjoyed them a lot after I figured out how to beat them. Den of the Skull is just as much of a stinker as you described. That map is completely broken and an absolute chore to speedrun since many of the teleporter sequences are slow as hell and can ruin the run if they take too long. I am very proud of my runs of The Portal and Skinny Puppy, since they both took 50+ attempts, and my Skinny Puppy run would be a 2nd place if i werent playing in GzDoom.
Watching this feels like seeing a movie you love since childhood being destroyed piece by piece by critics, yet something inside me tells to not sweat too much about it and don't see things with rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Not to mention how not everyone will like the same things as you do. I say this because this WAD together with the previous Memento Moris, Community Chest (almost all of them) and Hell Revealed 1 and 2 were my entryway (he, he) to DOOM 2 and made me fall in love with the franchise many years later after their releases, and since then there's a reason why this game is featured on my Steam profile as the best game I have in my huge library of games, with an ocean of mods and maps downloaded along the years. I remember playing this and the other WADs with Risen 3D since DOOM's sprites always creeped me out (and they still do scare the living shit out of me sometimes) so it felt "comfortable" enough to play everything with 3D models, including the monsters and props. Thanks to it, I could complete it and many other WADs I've played with it. The Memento Mori "trilogy" (1-2-Requiem) and others will always have a special place in my memories for introducing me to such a creative and endless fun game like DOOM.
I’m glad Doom didn’t end here. It’s amazing how we all thought we wouldn’t be playing certain games once “true 3D” hit. A similar sentiment with 2D platformers in the late 90s.
That sentiment only lasted until modders realized how much extra work it is to make maps in 3D, and how stout id Tech 1 is under the hood compared to Build.
Yeah, I always really liked how map06 had you returning to and working around the central island - it gave the level a cool and interesting sense of progression, whilst also making the map cohesive too -- I definitely think the Dean is being stingy, or just not engaging very well with older mapping.
I didn't even know the history behind Requiem, and after enjoying it (I didn't play on pistol start), I was hoping you'd like this a bit more than MM, but boy oh boy I forgot that last third or so. I think I originally played this as part of Compendium, and something I learned very early on while playing that is that level balance of stuff back from that era was VERY hit or miss compared to what we're more used to now, and there was no way in Hell I was gonna roll the dice on fun when that's what I was getting myself into, so my view of a lot of these late 90s wads was tinged by that.
This is actually one of the first custom WADs I ever played. Young me heard it had cool engine tricks like fake 3D floors and said "Sign me up!" ...I made it to MAP08 on I'm Too Young To Die before I got bored and quit. (Nowadays I play on UV.)
I was waiting for your opinion on that damn MAP24... I played Requiem like a year ago and i couldn't recall any level while i was watching your review except that one, one of the hardest things i've played Nice video as always, and thank you for three years of Dean of Doom!
Ah.. Requiem, Another of my personal favorite megawads. Takes me back to the time when all people could talk about was how "True" 3d shooters like Quake and Duke 3D would make Doom obsolete, but yet Doom still hobble on everyday. Requiem is special for the fact that it's 3d bridges I'm still mesmerized by along with new appreciation found from the Requiem Midi pack.
After recently playing MM2 and Requiem for the first time some months ago (and having played MM1 a few years prior), I agree. It had the most polish and I also have softer spot for it since it's the most techbasey of the 3 (I like techbases).
MM2 is the best high-profile wad of the 90s by a _wide_ margin. Made everything else (except for Icarus) look like babies drumming on keyboards when daddy left the map editor open by mistake.
No way!!! I just did my playthrough/review of Requiem a few months ago! I didnt think id get a review from u on it. I am so excited to watch this to see how our thoughts compare
hey cool, map19 was named after the band Skinny Puppy, who I think were one of the first industrial music acts. also I wouldn't be surprised if the midi is a cover.
After working on a Javascript framework project for most of the year, I can relate to all the "What"s that you let out during map 20. Are you releasing anything special with Doomkid this Christmas? The special you two held last year was fantastic. I'd love to see more!
The name "Matthias Worch" stroke me as familiar, had looked it up, and noticed that he worked on Unreal: RTNP and Unreal 2. Seeing where people you know are coming from is always a fun thing
Glad map19 was you're favorite. Such a fun map. Probably the grandpa of the "choose your encounter, receive a key" type of map. I also like 24 beacuse it makes you feel really weak, just like the chord series, but yeah, its extremly cruel without the obscure secret.
A lot of Requiem makes sense now given the troubled development it underwent. It's also worth noting that Requiem generally has a lack of boss fights that were previously more abundant in its spiritual predecessors. The music, though great, doesn't save this WAD from feeling very underwhelming and boring at times.
@@TheArgentAgent The music sure has survived much better than the wad itself. Look how many modern high-profile megawads still use this OST to much greater effect.
I love your work, man, everytine you do a Dean Of Doom if that wad is worth playing I am already playing it after watching one of your videos. You inspired me on making doom wads. You could do a Dean Of Doom with your subscribers' wads
To be honest the 90s was my favourite era of custom Doom wads. because the quality and innovation was literally all over the place. And, crucially for me, most WADs could actually be finished by casual Doomers on UV. Nowadays most modern WADs kick my ass to hell and back.
I remember the first time I loaded up Requiem in my teens and by the end of it feeling a bit duped. For a wad considered one of the "100 best Doom Wads of All Time" (granted that DW list only goes to 2003, it was still fresh to me as a teen) I was fairly taken aback by how un-fun a high percentage of the fights were. But even so, I was in awe of the many tricks and gimmicks I hadn't seen up to that point. Today, it's a nice look back at a turning point in Doom's history. Hard to believe there was a time that people thought this passion for Doom would ever dissipate considering the wads that were soon to follow. I love your reviews, I wonder what is next! Also, take a look at BOOMER: BEYOND VANILLA if you haven't yet!
Well, Map 21 is unique for all the weird reasons. 100% kills? Impossible. 100% secrets? Impossible. 100% items? Guess what - imopssible! Otherwise the map is so fun. I believe the ammo problem comes the fact in the two Memento Mori wads we were spoiled with shotgun shells. So they tried to nerf it too much. 3/5 for me with Hatred being my favourite. The wad impresses at the start, but dries out towards the end. Forgivable since Orrin Flaharty, the Möller brothers and I think Eric Stambach left the team midway through the production. But the fact Mark Klem decided not to make a map is inexcusable to me.
I actually played this through on my journey to try (and complete) all cacoward wads back in 2019. I actually found it to be the most fun of all top 40 wads from '94 to '97. There is a lot of quirky things by modern standards but while playing it straight through(no pistol starts except MAP01!~ it felt quit balanced, the erratic differences in combat was a bit irritating but it never felt bad. Even MAP14 wasnt as awful as Dean claims, though I will hand him MAP18 as being a bit of a stinker! 21 Is amusing is a weird sort of way to me. It feels like I playing like a map between maps in a corrupted version of doom! The thought of trying to pistol start MAP24 is nauseating, I am surprised Dean managed to do so. I thought Dean would have enjoyed it more, but he clearly plays way more newer more polished wads than I do so I suppose it makes sense that it feels lackluster to him. Now he needs to do Eternal Doom and STRAIN from 1997 too!
nowadays it's funny to think people expected doom to die out because of more technically advanced games, considering it's community is way more active and healthy than both quake and duke 3D's. course i'm very glad the community stood the test of time, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten the wide variety of masterpieces we have today
also the mirror gag at 5:20 is really funny but it also made me realize how messed up doom looks when flipped
Doom is a good example of how it's not technical flashiness that helps a game stick around
They didn't know that moddability was such a key part of longevity. Heck, look at Left 4 Dead nowadays, still pulling tons of players.
@@DinnerForkTongue - Ironically, moddability could mean that the so-called "black sheep", Doom 3, may well outlive the "popular new kids", Doom 2016 and Eternal :D
Yes, it seems pretty crazy, but there really was a time when Doom was expected to fade away and the community was showing signs of aging and stagnation. This was pretty much averted by the arrival of Doom 3... an achievement that is often forgotten by today's Doom kids.
While it seemed natural to move onto newer game engines, newer games' modding didn't have the same degree of accessibility as Doom did. Quake's early editors, in particular, seemed quite obtuse and cumbersome to use.
@@DinnerForkTonguewell, duke3d included editing tools on its release, so they had modding in mind
This would've been a flimsy WAD to end doom modding history on, if the authors's predictions turned out to be true. Glad this wasn't the case.
By 1997 standards, it wasn't flimsy at all. Many of the tricks pulled off in Requiem's maps were unheard of at the time.
The original soundtrack cannot be praised too highly. It's cool that those guys were willing to do such quality work for free.
It boggles my mind how badass Mark Klem's work was and still is, despite him only being involved for such a short amount of time. Almost every one of his tracks is a welcome addition even over 20 years later.
@@reddoomedearth4020 "Under Death" is particularly amazing. That track is so soul-crushing and haunting, yet sprinkled with a bit of grandiosity towards the end. It sounds like music that the Devil wrote for your funeral, as a way for him and all of his demons to mock your efforts and accomplishments.
@@kopfdertoten466 Under Death is criminally underrated. Without it, Waste Disposal Facility (Solar Struggle) and Living Library (DBP59 Zeppelin Armada) would not be as stunning as they are with this BGM.
They re-made it to release it as an album a few years ago, IIRC
"Eonz Soahc backwards" had me in pieces
It's the Windsor & Keranen Show!
Fun stuff about Requiem:
Map23, If I'm remembering correctly, a lot of people were very displeased with Dario over the use of the ghost monsters and the use of the Icon of Sin in that mapslot. Definitely some sort of miscommunication going on here.
Map24, story goes there's textured used in this map that weren't allowed to be used for any other map in the WAD. Makes me wonder what the story was behind this decision.
Map10, it was indeed corrupted and Windsor was a wizard in fixing it. No idea if Flaharty phoned this map in and sent it for any number of reasons, but to this day, to my knowledge, he's still been unheard of from the community.
Map19, Skinny Puppy is named after a Canadian electro-industrial band.
Map21, just a note, iirc the skull is always visible on the automap. However, it really deserves the worst map in the WAD. It is *ridiculously* buggy. You can't get 100% kills due to a teleport ambush closet being tied to deep water, which enemies can't hear or see through. If you try to fix it, you mess up the sky in another area and mess up the bridge as well. You can't get 100% secrets, either. The REJECT table is so fubared that speedrun demos recorded on it would ALWAYS desync even if you play it the exact same way it was recorded. You can soft lock in this map by going back to the blue key area and taking the red cross teleport. Lastly, you can't even get 100% items of you wanted to as a few health/armor bonuses are completely unreachable. It's by far the worst map in the WAD imo, and for it to supposedly be the biggest one in the WAD, that's really saying something about the lack of communication and leadership in this entire project.
People thought with Quake coming out that the Doom community would die out and everyone would migrate to the shiny new toy, which is why this project is named as such. As we can all clearly see, this game isn't going anywhere and is, in my opinion, thriving brighter than Quake's community.
I'd recommend everyone giving this one a shot for the piece of history that is holds, but I wouldn't linger longer than you feel the need to stick around for.
For MAP 24, the forbidden texture must be the crucified marine with "Adel" etched into the cross!
@MtPain27 XD Obviously!
Realistically, I believe it was the textures Czerwonka made himself for his own map that weren't allowed to be touched anywhere else in the WAD. Makes the most sense, but I feel the project could've used them in other places, too
Requiem is such an interesting subject from a historical perspective. It encapsulates some of the best and worst aspects of the 90s, and the ending of the Doom mapping golden age. The fact that it was so hard to finally finish the megawad it's a direct result of the massive impact that Quake and 3D games in general had in the Doom mapping community during the late 90s. By 1996, almost 2k WADs were uploaded to the /idgames archive. By 1997 this dropped by half, and it would reach its lowest point by 2002. Interestingly, Doom 3 was announced in E3 2002, and the WAD upload rate started rising again during the early 2000s.
I'd argue it was the bronze age of mapping. The golden age was marked by the release of Alien Vendetta.
@@DinnerForkTongue I think you could call it a "golden age" in the sense of golden age comic books! The 90s was a time when Doom maps were popular, relatively mainstream compared to now, naive and inelegant but bursting with enthusiasm.
If we were to talk about "golden" in the sense of quality, I mean...I'm a 90s kid, but the 2010s was a ridiculously good decade for Doom mapping, and the 2020s have been pretty awesome so far too. I love Alien Vendetta, there's at least a project or two a year of comparable quality now.
@@DinnerForkTongue I use ''golden time'' to refer to the mainstream popularity and surplus of activity something gets during its premiering days. The early 90s for Doom were superbly active and relevant. Every major gaming magazine was talking about Doom then, and everyone wanted to be a mapper and create WADs for it. Quality wise it was a rather rough age, but it did represent an exceptionally active time for the old community that wanted to experiment and create despite lacking experience of proper tools. Alien Vendetta for me, marks the start of a new era, as Doom would become ''mainstream'' again with the announcement of Doom 3, and activity would finally start rising again.
@@endless_doom5337
Oh, ok. Yeah, that's fair, in terms of overall popularity and not just mod/mapset quality, the nomenclature applies perfectly.
In that vein, after Doom 3 came out, Classic Doom did see a surge in popularity but it remained mostly niche to us Doomers. Can that be called a second Golden Age?
@@DinnerForkTongue I would probably call it something like a Silver or Bronze age, perhaps. It marked a new surge in activity, but it wouldn't reach the same level of community uploads as it did in the 90s. I would take more than a decade, until Doom 2016 came out, to return to those extremely active levels. The community right now is in something like a new renaissance.
How ironic that the megawad designed to pay respect to the classic doom's final moment has become one of the earliest examples of classic doom modding. Only if people back in 90s knew about the simple fact "Doom is eternal."
Well said! It's certainly funny that Requiem ended up not being remotely the last one, but once the humor of it fades away it makes you realize just how lucky this game is - and how lucky we are for having gotten hooked on it.
@@CammyWritesMusic - Well, back then it really seemed that Doom could be on its way out. Source ports had not yet taken off, and most younger gamers weren't really interested in some 1993 DOS game that ran in 320x200 resolution. Doom really seemed to be part of a bygone era as the year 2000 approached...
The remake of the soundtrack done by all three original composers, Requiem Reimagined, is definitely worth checking out.
Also a protip for name pronunciations: Google Translate's TTS works quite well to get the basic gist right.
Whenever you mention wads designed to pay tribute to the 'obsolescence' of Doom to Quake and the like, with Doom quietly dying and Quake and Duke Nukem manufacturing fan content at industrial speed, I can't help but wonder what that timeline is like.
I'm glad I don't live in it.
@@DinnerForkTongue Yeah, we got the long end of this one!
I would prefer a timeline where all three were flushed with content. Definitely a ton of great stuff for Duke and Quake, but not nearly as popular or accessible as Doom.
Or even a proper continuation of the style of Strife.
@@WulvenWanderer
Well, for Strife, you have Ashes 2063. It hits pretty much all the notes, including plenty of dialogue and branching story.
@@DinnerForkTongueYou have to break a few eggs to kill everybody. ... or something.
The introspective look I took back on my time playing Requiem brought on by the sight of this video in my sub-box caused me to realize I could only remember two maps with certainty: the Casali map, and the prison map with tight halls and no ammo. The second one of course was Procrustes Chambers, but the description could be applied to rather too much of Requiem as a whole.
It's always fun to see you tackle these super-oldschool wads - it's a shame there are only so many of them, because the mixture of praising sleeper hits, examining iconic successes, and thrashing baffling failures is always a great time! A little bit of something for everyone.
I feel like I should replay the Memento Mori trilogy (we all know Requiem is MM3, let's be real), because everybody has an opinion on which of the three is the best one, but I don't. At least it's easy to tell Kama Sutra is the best in the Hell Revealed trilogy; the MMs are pretty close.
I'd say that, with all the Keränen and Czerwonka maps, it's half MM3 and half Dystopia 4. Map 08 is essentialy a remake of a previous Keränen map from Dystopia 3, and his other Requiem maps are similar to his Dystopia 3 stuff too.
Back in the "old days" there were rumors that MM3 would be a levelpack for Quake, from what I remember... seems to be just an urban legend at this point, so yeah - Requiem is the real MM3 now :P
@AlexeiVoronin That actually sounds like it could have been pretty cool. Assuming the Innocent Crew and Co. would have carried their existing design philosophies into Quake, a more sophisticated engine would have given them a whole new playground of complex mechanics to mess around with, while the more technically demanding nature of Quake would probably have forced them to cool it with the scale of their maps for the sake of everyone's PCs. Both sound like good things for Memento Mori.
"Requiem was supposed to be the final wad made for Doom because Quake and D3DN were going to kill Doom"
That aged well, didn't it
It made sense at the time
Aged like a cheap ballpoint pen.
I’d say it’s disappointing neither of those games ended up having a modding scene nearly as prolific as doom. a lot of activity with quake has been posthumous interest
Can you imagine a development period SO TROUBLED that the project took OVER A YEAR to complete?
If only they knew how much time they actually had!
If only those guys could look ahead and see the future, holding both Mordeth and the Back To Saturn X series on its hands...
@@DinnerForkTongue You didn't have to remind me of BTSXE3...since it's taking so long to come out, I'm concerned that it won't have such a blasting soundtrack E2 and especially E1 had, much less the "remastered" versions that Kira/Velvetic made long ago
@@tobiyoarcangel A lot of the BTSX E3 music was written 10+ years ago at the same time as E1+2 (some of it was uploaded on Jimmy and essel's channels years ago), and if you haven't checked out the 5-map demo of E3 yet, I can assure you the music is still top-tier, especially the track for skillsaw's map.
@@TristanClarkMusic I checked some E3 tracks Esselfortium did (Toybox and Egypt are names that come to mind) but I don't know if more got out ever since then, and I never checked in Jimmy's channel. Thanks for the headsup!
This just made my day. I haven't had time to play Doom in months or really keep up with some of your recent videos. Requiem was one of the first megaWADs I ever played and it holds the honor of being the first one I ever completed. I love the music in this WAD. All these years later, I think this has some of the best MIDIs ever composed for Doom. Map 13 has my favorite track of the WAD. There is not a bad song on this soundtrack.
Map 11 is my favorite in this WAD, and you didn't mention anything about the music, so I will. That's one of the best tracks with an awesome bluesy solo in it.
I am not surprised that you disliked Ikka Keranen's combat encounters. His maps were visually brilliant, but have so many cramped corridors that he would fill with higher tier enemies. This is made worse with how little ammo are in those maps. Map 27 is the worst for me as I always run out of ammo.
I will defend Map 13 despite it's issues. The MIDI on that level being my favorite in the entire WAD goes some way for me to give it compliments. You did not mention at the end of level the neat waterfall corridor. I thought that was an interesting attention of detail.
The highlight of this video is Map 24. That map is the absolute worst in Requiem and used to break my spirits on playthroughs. I still remember the first time I beat it, I felt like I had survived a nightmare. There is so little health and ammo. As for the secret you mention, I did not know that existed until about 12 years after I had played Requiem cause it's so obscure. Even if you go into that map with a fair bit of ammo from the previous one, it is just a slog. YES the Hell Revealed people would have a fit over this map! I would've gave that map the F instead of Map 14. The Portal isn't that bad once you know all it's traps and you can at least just run through the exit if you don't want to deal with the final enemies.
Overall, I still love this WAD despite it not being great. It was the first one I ever finished and could say I beat. I will always say Requiem has one of the best soundtracks in Doom. There is even a professionally recorded album of the tracks that was released a few years ago.
Agreed about Map14 and Map24. I wouldn't give Map14 an F grade. It's not great, but with foreknowledge, it's not too bad. Map24 definitely deserves an F in my book. That map is just unfun in every way. Even it's visuals are a turn off for me.
@@atifarshad7624 Yeah, I can defend Map 14 having played it so many times. Once you know the traps well and to save ammo, it's not as hard. Even if you're having a tough time, you can just run to the exit in the end and not bothering to 100% kill everything.
Map 24 is hands down the worst. It is such a slog to play through. It was not until many years later I found out about the secret ammo cache in this level and I'd still argue it's not enough. I've never 100% killed everything in that map nor have I tried to. I always just try to finish that map at the bare minimum and get it over with.
I'll get the popcorn. A new Dean of Doom episode just appeared 😀
0:56 I started laughing when you zoomed in that chaingun.
5:21 Ok... flipped doom weapons give me a seizure.
Ok, finished the review. I was hoping for you to review this wad. It was one of the firsts wads I played when I found sourceports and... It really shows it's age specially when pistol starting. I tried it once and realized how painfull map 24 is. I also didn't know that Requiem had so much issues during development.
Another great episode. Keep up the good work. The Rebirth review when? 👀
The best part of the chaingun zoom is, it makes sense for it to be that small: It fires small and weak pistol bullets, so it's a machine pistol by any measure 💀
Awesome video, I did a play through of this WAD with Project Brutality 2.0 and it was so nice seeing these maps again, and seeing areas I had completely forgotten. I don't why playing through a wad is such a emotional trip for me
Great episode! Requiem reminds me of the mixed-bag nature of the Community Chest series. You never know what you're going to get when you enter a new map.
It’s kinda funny how this was supposed to be the “Requiem for doom wads” in the same way Final Doom was “The final chapter of the Doom series”. Yeah, hindsight’s 2020, but it’s weird to think that this would’ve been where we leave off on doom maps. We never thought there would be an Alien Vendetta, or a Scythe, or a Speed of Doom, or a Valiant, an equinox, a heartland, a Sunder, A Sunlust, a Going down, a struggle, an eveternity, an overboard or any other standout megawad you can think of. I guess it goes to show how timeless doom was. Even with the advent of quake, duke nukem, or thousands of other fps games, doom continues to live on…insert “Doom is eternal” comment here. -3-
And yeah, this wad looks rough. I figured it would’ve been a highlight wad, but man does it look like a product of its time and rushed development.
I’m now 90% sure Den of the Skull was the inspiration for Nandayanen from JPCP
hard to believe nowadays people ever thought doom would go outta style.
The Mid-Late 90s were actually kind of a depressing time to be an FPS fan. People were splurging about how fully 3D games were the only way to go and anything with sprites was hot garbage from the past. Tons of people and review outlets significantly dinged games like Blood, Eradicator, and Shadow Warrior for not being fully 3D like Quake. When Half-Life, Sin, and Deus Ex all hit the stage in 98 people were so quick to dismiss and ignore any sprite based First person games it was depressing.
With the above being said it made perfect sense that Keranen expected Doom to die out extremely fast in 97 especially with how 3D games were progressing. However, with the source code in hand and an already extremely mod friendly game it makes sense that DOOM managed to survive those dark years for sprite based FPS games (1996-2003~).
Yes but that was before the source code was released. I think it's the continuous new updates and new features that source ports bring that fuel mappers' creativities, or rather, allow those innate creativities to attain their full potential. The more ambitious the projects get, the more inspiring they are to the next generation.
@@XaviarCraig - The prevalent source port at the time was Doom 95, which was... well, it did its job, but it wasn't the best experience imaginable.
If not for TeamTNT's Boom and Randi's ZDoom, it might have gone so.
Well this episode popped up on my feed faster than expected
I heard Requiem has a really great wad OST, you can never go wrong with Mark Klem
Yes, it does. Professional quality.
The OST is easily the best part, yes. Little wonder that most tracks are used even today, such as Under Death appearing to _magnificent_ effect in both Zeppelin Armada and Solar Struggle, both easily 20+ years after Mark released the song.
This is another one I've been excited to see covered for a while!
"Parsimonious."
I remember when the Doom wiki article for Go 2 It said that the map's Megaspheres must be used "with parsimony." Not knowing the word at the time, it sounded like a cooking instruction. It still makes me laugh.
Hey mtpain, i had a really long day today, im tired af, and it feels like the world is constantly trying to get something from me.
It was really, really comforting to see a new video was up, almost as if I can spend time away from my troubles for awhile.
Thank you mtpain, it must be a lot of work doing all this. Best wishes for you and this channel.
Requiem remains, to this very day, an amazing experience for any oldschool Doomer. I am quite disappointed by some of the comments I see here. Folks, please don't judge 1997 WADs by 2023 standards. It's a very, very dumb thing to do.
just completed map23... amazing... I'm so glad I'm experiencing this one for the 1st time with fancy additions such as Voxel Doom + Reshade (enhanced brightness saturation and sharpness) + FinalDoomer (Hellbound weapon set with Remote Detonator C4 Charges LOOOL) The maps are nice looking
oh and I forgot to add Explosive Barrels from Brutal Doom, which also features the Brutal Doom blood and gore (LOL) I tried other Blood mods such as NashGore and Bolognese but I ended up finding out that nothing quite compares to the BrutalDoom blood so I kept it
Just finished this WAD today, it was pretty decent.
right after I finished this one, I've played through JPCP Japanese Community Project and it felt like a true modern sequel, without the crappy parts 👍
No, I do think I will. Times have changed, Requiem has aged horrendously and doesn't hold up at all, that you cannot honestly deny. Like Hell Revealed, Requiem should be played first and foremost out of curiosity for how things were done in the distant past, and only then does the Doomer decide if s/he likes it for what it is.
When this WAD, supposedly Doom modding's swan song, was released, I was literally a day old and yet here I am in adult life watching a video about it. I always felt that was a cool coincidence, long live Doom, eh?
Also for fans of the soundtrack, I would encourage you to check out the Requiem Reimagined album, featuring remakes of every track with VSTs and live instruments, produced by the three composers along with JD Herrera. It's well worth a listen! th-cam.com/play/PLVDYINVKng7V03JGox-6zTAxMpRww0q0G.html
Thank you for the link Tristan!
Ahh Requiem, one of the first wads I played for doom that I sadly haven't ever really finished. I'm wierd like that. But I really did enjoyed it.
I think it’s safe to say the entire Doom Community has been waiting for this episode
The thing that gets me about Requiem is how much its midis keep appearing in other megawads made recently and in the last decade or so. Some have even been in very recent projects. That, and this was one of the first custom wads (along with Reverie) I remember playing. Not a 'perfect' mapset but one that's beautiful in its own way - even if you don't understand its significance next to the release of Quake.
From what little I've seen of your wad Headless Chicken, Requiem was part of an inspiration in its visuals.
Heard the name Requiem in the world of Doom but this is my first time seeing anything from it. Would give it a go for a casual romp & any new Midis for Doom projects rather than other games are a plus.
The inconsistencies are clear, but it's nice to delve back into the furthest reaches of Doom modding history. The modern experts (Well above my level of map design etc) learnt a lot from projects like this after all 🙂
Recently (finally) bought Quake & Quake II but I'd still fall back onto any Doom projects, the community that keeps on giving 😀
Reminder to do Memento Mori 2 at some point, best of the (unofficial) MM trilogy IMO. It's also somewhat inconsistent but has a lot of memorable and cool maps and is much better than MM1 overall.
Memento Mori II, for me, hits a _much_ stronger note than both the first one and Requiem. I enjoy playing it unironically. And I say this with zero nostalgia - I think it was 2020 when I first played MM2.
Well, perfect way to start my b’day, with another delve into doom history with the Dean. Thanks a lot MtPain!
Happy birthday!
It's funny to think that Doom fans in the 90s thought Doom would go out of style and be replaced by Quake, considering that Doom has outlasted Quake in popularity, relevance, and its modding scene by a country mile.
(Not that I dislike Quake - in fact, I'm hoping against hope that we get a proper Quake reboot, or even a Quake 5 at some point)
Dude yes! Quake 5! I never hear anyone mention it but I’d be so down for that.
Map 21's "what" section is golden!6/5 would recommend watching again!
I'm a simple woman, I see a new dean of doom, I watch.
Thank you for another Dean on Doom episode Mt. Pain. I know these episodes are a labor of love to do, and knowing how much Requiem was at the time of conception is simply eye-opening and somewhat of a testament to how much Doom matters to this community. Something expected to be a final send-off yet here we are nearly 3 decades later still with more wads than we can do and handle, knowing these history notes is fascinating to me, thank you again for these episodes :)
If this was meant to be Doom's last hurrah, then what a sour note to go out with.
Love your videos as always Prof. Mount. :)
Those windows at 10:47 were bringing back memories I didn't know I had of the Quake map ikspq2. I guess Iikka was really fond of that shape.
You review wads that i have already extensively player, however you Always guve new light to them with their background history and your salient points. Thanks.
When I was a kid Requiem was one of those WADs whose existence alone I was impressed with. “Wow!! A whole set of fan made levels?” my pre-teen self thought. I created this mythic image of it in my head and dreamt of the day I’d sit down to play it.
But then whatever happened and I didn’t play Doom stuff until I was much older and not even anything outside the IWADs at that.
I finally played this about a year ago. And today I watched this and didn’t remember a single one of the maps as it had left absolutely no impression on me whatsoever. Oh well.
The first time I played Requiem I was coming off of the back of a Final Doom playthrough, and I was looking for another 90's era classic. One which would have a bit more polish than WADs like Memento Mori or Hell Revealed. I was incredibly impressed by map 01 and 03's thorough detailing and map 02's continuity and technical chops, but I ended up deciding to leave it for later after dying a lot to map 03's tight ammo allotment. Seeing this review makes me grateful I didn't commit myself to a full playthrough! Thanks for your ever-entertaining writing and editing, Dean.
You know, Requiem was a WAD I've been curious to play for years but just never got around to for some reason. Now, I'm fine leaving it alone haha. After seeing all its gimmickry and WTF moments, Den of the Skull looks like it could've served as a prototype for Magikal's Community Chest contributions. Also, I was really surprised to read that Adam Windsor has made maps as recently as 2020. For some reason, I thought he stopped mapping in the early 2000s, but that was cool to see otherwise. One thing's certain though, Requiem's soundtrack has aged better than the WAD itself. I can't even begin to count how many other projects have used those tracks. Props to Klem, Shaw and Doyle. They're some MIDI Wizards
Heck, we can spotlight Solar Struggle alone. It uses two Requiem tracks and uses them beautifully.
Happy 3rd anniversary to Dean of Doom, thanks for another great year of content :). Here's to more to come
I wonder if we'll ever see a Dean of Doom special for some of the more historic TC mods like Aliens TC, Zombies TC, or the Batman TC?
Chex Quest :^)
Maybe in a Sawed-Off Wads episode?
@@DinnerForkTongue Possibly though some of these TC's are extensive enough to deserve a full episode, IMHO. I would love to see a Sawed-Off Wads episode for the PS1 version of Doom's exclusive levels.
Requiem, this has been one of my favourite megawads to go through and still is, I say it's pretty much a progenitor to Alien Vendetta in the sense that it is a collection of maps that for the most part pushed the boundaries of the Doom and showcased many neat mapping tricks that you don't see much in wads at the time (case in point Town of the Dead by Iikka Keranen, which still holds very well), and I always love a wad that has one or both of the Casalis to give me the excruciating punishment they dish out. Nevertheless, I won't deny that this is a wad that could have been done better if given proper management and there were communications between members of the team that got together to put create this megawad. Here's something for you, some mappers that were supposed to make contributions dropped out, resulting in Adam Windsor having to bring some of his maps that were originally intended to be in his one-man megawad Demonfear. Another issue I had with Requiem is also the same I have with Alien Vendetta, most of the maps are linear, but that's just a minor quibble. Den of the Skull, yeah, interesting concept, but it was brought down due to bugs and oversights that made the map felt like it was in its beta stage. Speaking of bugs, there's an issue in The Reactor, where you can get softlocked by being trapped in a lift forcing you to noclip, Militant Reprisal always felt like a contender for the worst map since a few of the secrets are unreachable and it was a mismash of themes strewned into an ugly mess. I like Doorway to Quake, it's a very good Doom translation of Quake's E1M6: The Door to Cththon, and I consider it a D difficulty since I play the wad continuously. Come to think of it, I feel doing pistol starts on wads made in the 90s isn't the best approach as they were never intended to be played like that and playing them how they're supposed to play makes them not as hard as you grade them. Nevertheless, good review on a megawad that seemed to be the Doom community's last hurrah as many transitioned to Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. Ironically, Doom is still kicking it, while not many maps for the other first-person shooters get made. Still waiting on Memento Mori 2 and Eternal Doom when you get to them.
7:48 Just one Correction: In map 09, the blue key room. Its a timed door. It should open after 30 seconds.
I believe the command is "Door Close, Wait, Open."
One of the few ancient yet well-known megaWADs I dropped halfway through playing. While I have nothing but respect for it from a historical point of view, I found most of Requiem's obtuse level progression and penchant for narrow corridors to be far too annoying and the repetitive. Fortunately, I did retain enough gumption to at least witness MAP19, which honestly is enough to recommend people download the WAD to experience that map alone at the very least. You're a stronger man than I am, Pain. I simply couldn't stomach Requiem's warts anymore after MAP21 and called it quits.
The biggest standout of Requiem was its soundtrack, composed by three very talented individuals! My pick is Last Resort by Jeremy Doyle.
I only like Last Resort because it inspired the remix Your Last Resort in TNT Revilution, and because it was popular enough to propel Doyle into sticking with the community until he refined his craft to the razor's edge that it is today.
Nothing against Last Resort, it just doesn't tickle my tingle nerves.
Ngl, i was surprised to see Requiem before Memento Mori 2.
But the soundtrack...and some of the map tricks got me invested for a month back in 2017
I was waiting for this sooo long... Requiem may be one of my favorite WADs, and considering that this was made in 1997 with such primitive Doom editing tools makes it even more impressive. Thanks MtPain for covering all of these cool megawads :)
Although I must say that some maps really should've been left out to deliver a better product.
After being subscribed to you for a couple years now, I'm literally unable to say or even think the word "gauntlet" without saying "gantlet"
Finally we're getting a Requiem dean of doom episode! One of the first community megawads I've ever played. Grabbing some popcorn right now.
How amazing wads based on an engine from 1993 are still being played and new map sets still come out every year. There is something about it's gameplay feel that is truly captivating and timeless. Glad I'm not the only who can't get enough of it.
Anyway, hope you one day get to cover 'A.L.T.' from 2012 by Clan [B0S]. (Title stands for Absolute Life Transformation) Such a unique megawad! (even it the maps get a bit uneven in the middle). As a fever dream of death, it's existential atmosphere is unmatched though. ;) Closest I can compare it to in terms of narrative coherence and creativity is Going Down, but A.L.T. is more psychologically charged. It's not the best known, but it's my favorite megawad.
I’ve heard a lot about A.L.T. Will be sure to give it a look. And I agree, Doom’s staying power is incredible.
It was also features in the 'Our Top 25 Missed Cacowards' feature over at Doomworld, for some extra info (and praise).
With October coming up, its a megawad to fit the mood. ^^
Anyway, love your videos, keep up the good work. ;)
What a great birthday present! 😁
Happy birthday! You share a b-day with two others in the comments, actually.
@@MtPain27 thanks bro. Oh nice! Happy birthday to them as well.
I am new to classic Doom and was looking to see if you had a Dean of Doom episode on this very WAD last night! What an uncanny coincidence. I am bouncing between playing Vanilla Doom I on UV and playing wads with Brutal Doom on GZ Doom (disabling the new enemy types and the new weapon spawn replacements). I plan to beat both Doom I and II as intended but I also really like all of the mods and maps people have made for the game. It's weird to fully discover this game in my mid-late 20's when it's been out for so long, but I both appreciate and admire your work as it helps me to understand the culture Doom used to have... and it gives me insight into the 'classic' Doom community of today! Mt. Pain you are doing a service for the entire Doom community and helping guys like me get into the loop, thank you very much! 😎
Poison Processing is the Requiem map I am stuck on in Brutal Doom at the moment, tactically it's insanely fun and engaging. However, since "Brutal" Doomguy is made out of paper maché and hope, I get absolutely evaporated at some points. I noticed that the 90's mappers love to criss-cross enemy sight-lines like crazy, it leads to some interesting and thought-provoking engagements regarding taking good angles when you clear rooms. One might call getting thrown into a proverbial blender good practice, lol. Anyone in the comments have some other good wad recommendations for a newbie wanting to improve? >.>
This is a classic. I remember playing it when it came out. I love Map 3.
Wahey! The madman got round to reviewing this one! Looking forward to it.
Played this many, many years ago. Don't remember too much about it, but the bridges certainly leave a lasting impression.
14:04 "the threat of four shaved shamblers" SHAMBLERS ARE FURRY CONFIRMED
If only we knew, 30 years later...
I love the soundtrack of these 4 classics: Memento Mori 1 and 2, Requiem and Strain. And I haven't even played Requiem or Strain yet. And after this review, I'm not really moving either of these to the top of my "to play" list 😂
Also, I hope your bad experience with Thomas Moller's map doesn't discourage you from playing Obituary some day (if you haven't already) and maybe from covering it in your channel. It's a really interesting wad, imo, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it some day :)
We scored a lot of maps very differently. I think everything you said was correct, but I think we experienced them in different ways. I give my reviews in terms of a speedrunning/saveless perspective. So how the map plays with full map knowledge and a strategy in mind, since thats how I imagine the map creator would play it. Many maps play much much differently like that compared to blind or semi-blind. Many become much more tolerable, since the gameplay becomes more exciting on its own with a strategy in mind to dismantle it in the most efficient way. That being said, my favorite maps in the set were the Reactor, Hatred, and Skinny puppy, since they were all interesting to route and unique in their execution/atmosphere. The Portal and Fetal’s Remains were the hardest, but again I enjoyed them a lot after I figured out how to beat them. Den of the Skull is just as much of a stinker as you described. That map is completely broken and an absolute chore to speedrun since many of the teleporter sequences are slow as hell and can ruin the run if they take too long. I am very proud of my runs of The Portal and Skinny Puppy, since they both took 50+ attempts, and my Skinny Puppy run would be a 2nd place if i werent playing in GzDoom.
I love when you cover older wads!
Watching this feels like seeing a movie you love since childhood being destroyed piece by piece by critics, yet something inside me tells to not sweat too much about it and don't see things with rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Not to mention how not everyone will like the same things as you do.
I say this because this WAD together with the previous Memento Moris, Community Chest (almost all of them) and Hell Revealed 1 and 2 were my entryway (he, he) to DOOM 2 and made me fall in love with the franchise many years later after their releases, and since then there's a reason why this game is featured on my Steam profile as the best game I have in my huge library of games, with an ocean of mods and maps downloaded along the years.
I remember playing this and the other WADs with Risen 3D since DOOM's sprites always creeped me out (and they still do scare the living shit out of me sometimes) so it felt "comfortable" enough to play everything with 3D models, including the monsters and props. Thanks to it, I could complete it and many other WADs I've played with it. The Memento Mori "trilogy" (1-2-Requiem) and others will always have a special place in my memories for introducing me to such a creative and endless fun game like DOOM.
I’m glad Doom didn’t end here. It’s amazing how we all thought we wouldn’t be playing certain games once “true 3D” hit. A similar sentiment with 2D platformers in the late 90s.
That sentiment only lasted until modders realized how much extra work it is to make maps in 3D, and how stout id Tech 1 is under the hood compared to Build.
Damn, I was surprised to hear how much you dislike Map 6 considering its probably my favourite in the wad lmao. Great video as always mate
Same here, I think map 6 is generally one of the more well regarded maps in the wad
Yeah, I always really liked how map06 had you returning to and working around the central island - it gave the level a cool and interesting sense of progression, whilst also making the map cohesive too -- I definitely think the Dean is being stingy, or just not engaging very well with older mapping.
Flipping the screen for "nataS ot etubirT" was hilariously cursed.
I didn't even know the history behind Requiem, and after enjoying it (I didn't play on pistol start), I was hoping you'd like this a bit more than MM, but boy oh boy I forgot that last third or so. I think I originally played this as part of Compendium, and something I learned very early on while playing that is that level balance of stuff back from that era was VERY hit or miss compared to what we're more used to now, and there was no way in Hell I was gonna roll the dice on fun when that's what I was getting myself into, so my view of a lot of these late 90s wads was tinged by that.
This is actually one of the first custom WADs I ever played. Young me heard it had cool engine tricks like fake 3D floors and said "Sign me up!"
...I made it to MAP08 on I'm Too Young To Die before I got bored and quit. (Nowadays I play on UV.)
So good to see the Dean again
It's always a good day when the dean uploads a new review!
I was waiting for your opinion on that damn MAP24... I played Requiem like a year ago and i couldn't recall any level while i was watching your review except that one, one of the hardest things i've played
Nice video as always, and thank you for three years of Dean of Doom!
Perfectly timed... stuck at work on a h9liday with nothing to do. Tyvm!
i swear it’s like i woke up today and just felt an upload coming!
Ah.. Requiem, Another of my personal favorite megawads. Takes me back to the time when all people could talk about was how "True" 3d shooters like Quake and Duke 3D would make Doom obsolete, but yet Doom still hobble on everyday.
Requiem is special for the fact that it's 3d bridges I'm still mesmerized by along with new appreciation found from the Requiem Midi pack.
The screen flips in "nataS ot etubirT" were the best part of the video.
imo the best dean of doom episodes are always the ones of 90s wads
Talk about serendipity. I'm currently playing through this wad.
Out of the 3 I always preferred momento mori 2 rather than the original or requiem I'd love to see a dean of doom on that one
After recently playing MM2 and Requiem for the first time some months ago (and having played MM1 a few years prior), I agree.
It had the most polish and I also have softer spot for it since it's the most techbasey of the 3 (I like techbases).
MM2 is the best high-profile wad of the 90s by a _wide_ margin. Made everything else (except for Icarus) look like babies drumming on keyboards when daddy left the map editor open by mistake.
@DinnerForkTongue yeah the level of polish on some of those maps is staggering it's why I was shocked when the Dean skipped it and went to requiem
No way!!! I just did my playthrough/review of Requiem a few months ago! I didnt think id get a review from u on it. I am so excited to watch this to see how our thoughts compare
90s wads are my favorite episodes. Its crazy how different they are from modern stuff.
I love seeing the names of these authors that went on to do Quake maps, and then, get hired too :)
hey cool, map19 was named after the band Skinny Puppy, who I think were one of the first industrial music acts.
also I wouldn't be surprised if the midi is a cover.
I can assure you, it is not :)
After working on a Javascript framework project for most of the year, I can relate to all the "What"s that you let out during map 20. Are you releasing anything special with Doomkid this Christmas? The special you two held last year was fantastic. I'd love to see more!
We might, but if we do, it won’t be quite as lengthy as last year
MtPain27 videos always make my days better
The name "Matthias Worch" stroke me as familiar, had looked it up, and noticed that he worked on Unreal: RTNP and Unreal 2.
Seeing where people you know are coming from is always a fun thing
He also contributed maps to MM2, so you know.
5:25 doom in a mirror view looks so cursed
Always a great day when a new Dean of Doom drops
Glad map19 was you're favorite. Such a fun map. Probably the grandpa of the "choose your encounter, receive a key" type of map. I also like 24 beacuse it makes you feel really weak, just like the chord series, but yeah, its extremly cruel without the obscure secret.
A lot of Requiem makes sense now given the troubled development it underwent. It's also worth noting that Requiem generally has a lack of boss fights that were previously more abundant in its spiritual predecessors. The music, though great, doesn't save this WAD from feeling very underwhelming and boring at times.
@@TheArgentAgent The music sure has survived much better than the wad itself. Look how many modern high-profile megawads still use this OST to much greater effect.
I love your work, man, everytine you do a Dean Of Doom if that wad is worth playing I am already playing it after watching one of your videos. You inspired me on making doom wads. You could do a Dean Of Doom with your subscribers' wads
5:25 when Doomguy stopped being ambidextrous! nice video Dean
To be honest the 90s was my favourite era of custom Doom wads. because the quality and innovation was literally all over the place. And, crucially for me, most WADs could actually be finished by casual Doomers on UV. Nowadays most modern WADs kick my ass to hell and back.
modern wads are genuinely unplayable on anything above hey not too rough
@@eltiolavara9The community plays them just fine.
@@DinnerForkTongue (by my unskilled ass)
I remember the first time I loaded up Requiem in my teens and by the end of it feeling a bit duped. For a wad considered one of the "100 best Doom Wads of All Time" (granted that DW list only goes to 2003, it was still fresh to me as a teen) I was fairly taken aback by how un-fun a high percentage of the fights were. But even so, I was in awe of the many tricks and gimmicks I hadn't seen up to that point. Today, it's a nice look back at a turning point in Doom's history. Hard to believe there was a time that people thought this passion for Doom would ever dissipate considering the wads that were soon to follow.
I love your reviews, I wonder what is next! Also, take a look at BOOMER: BEYOND VANILLA if you haven't yet!
Your review of Boomer is saved in my Watch Later!
Happy 3th anniversary dean of doom 🎉🎉
Been waiting for this one! First Megawad I ever played.
Kinda hilarious that people thought Doom would eventually go out of style.
Jokes on them, because Doom is *ETERNAL!*
I was just thinking of the word and you released the review of the wad. Witchcraft
Yes a new DEAN OF DOOM video!
I see MtPain27 upload, I pres s like, I leave a comment.
Well, Map 21 is unique for all the weird reasons. 100% kills? Impossible. 100% secrets? Impossible. 100% items? Guess what - imopssible! Otherwise the map is so fun.
I believe the ammo problem comes the fact in the two Memento Mori wads we were spoiled with shotgun shells. So they tried to nerf it too much.
3/5 for me with Hatred being my favourite. The wad impresses at the start, but dries out towards the end. Forgivable since Orrin Flaharty, the Möller brothers and I think Eric Stambach left the team midway through the production. But the fact Mark Klem decided not to make a map is inexcusable to me.
I actually played this through on my journey to try (and complete) all cacoward wads back in 2019. I actually found it to be the most fun of all top 40 wads from '94 to '97. There is a lot of quirky things by modern standards but while playing it straight through(no pistol starts except MAP01!~ it felt quit balanced, the erratic differences in combat was a bit irritating but it never felt bad. Even MAP14 wasnt as awful as Dean claims, though I will hand him MAP18 as being a bit of a stinker! 21 Is amusing is a weird sort of way to me. It feels like I playing like a map between maps in a corrupted version of doom! The thought of trying to pistol start MAP24 is nauseating, I am surprised Dean managed to do so. I thought Dean would have enjoyed it more, but he clearly plays way more newer more polished wads than I do so I suppose it makes sense that it feels lackluster to him.
Now he needs to do Eternal Doom and STRAIN from 1997 too!