WAD Review of SPIT.WAD By Cameron Newham. (cam@iinet.com.au) Copyright (c) Cameron B. Newham, 1994 ===================================== Title :SPIT.WAD ;) Author :Damon Casale Email Address :dc56+@andrew.cmu.edu Misc. Author Info :Comments requested... Description: A small complex near a volcano. There is also a canyon with a climbable mountain. This is my first public attempt at wad writing, so send me your comments. Too small? Too easy? Too hard? Lemme know! Thanks for your support... ===================================== Having some time on my hands, here is another small review for this weekend. This level starts in a small room with a long dark corridor leading off. The author of this level had pointed out that some of the step textures had garbage on them - this was evident in the first room and is caused by having a step texture defined and offsetting it for the sidedef (in an attempt to get the upper texture correctly placed). Note for the author: You need to make the upper texture "unpegged" and have no Y offset for the sidedef - or, if you absolutely need to offset it, use a texture other than a "step" texture (which is a non- repeating texture and causes "pink gap" if not used correctly). I followed this corridor leaving a side door for later investigation and opened the door at the end. I battled a few denizens and then grabbed a chaingun. This caused a number of door to open in the large circular room I was in. I backed off and soon had the situation under control. I then went and explored finding the first major flaw in this WAD. One of the rooms I entered had a door which slid open to reveal some goodies. I entered this room and the door closed on me leaving me stranded, as it wouldn't open by pushing. Fortunately I had saved the game so repeated the procedure a little quicker the next time. Having found no other doors, I headed back to the first door I had passed in the corridor. Opening this revealed a dark room with some monsters in it. It was exceedingly hard to see anything! Luckily there weren't too many monsters (I was playing, as usual, on "Hurt me plenty" - this level has difficulty settings implemented). I once again blew these critters back to Hell and entered a lift that rose for ages and finally deposited me at the top of what looked like a canyon - or volcano as the author says it is. I had more monsters to contend with and lept into the thick of things - literally. This area had some nice creativity in the form of a river of lava flowing through it. Having retrieved the weapons from the recently deceased (maybe?) soldiers I rounded a corner to see a hill with a few imps and sargeants scurrying around. These soon fell to my trusty shotgun and I proceeded to scale the hill. I got to the top..... ....and.... ....nothing! No end. No switch. What a disappointment! Overall I found this WAD too small and lacking in some obvious areas - like an end switch. There is promise here but this WAD is essentially an experiment on the part of the author. I don't recommend downloading it. On scales of 0 to 10. Layout: 5 Textures: 7 Difficulty: 5 Level Logic: 7 Funness 4 On Cameron's overall scale of 0 to 10, Spit.wad scores a 5.6. spit.wad is available via ftp on ocf.unt.edu. - Cameron (cam@iinet.com.au). ============================================== Score meanings: All scores are 0 to 10. Layout: Badly layed out, floors/lifts don't work as expected, incorrect use of doors, etc. No atmosphere. ---> Well layed out, vantage points well chosen, all lifts/doors/floors work as expected. Good atmosphere created. Textures: Incorrect/clashing/misaligned/missing textures everywhere ---> All textures fit together well, are aligned and there is no HOM. Difficulty: Too easy/impossible to complete on any difficulty setting * ---> Everything (health/ammo/weapons/monsters) is well balanced. Level Logic: Items provided and never used/needed items don't exist/keys cannot be found, too much doubling back required ---> All items are found in logical order and are used, level flows smoothly. Funness: Wished I'd never spent time even downloading it, let alone playing it ---> I had great fun playing it and will play it more than once. Overall score: 0 - 5: don't bother. 5 - 6: shows promise but not worth downloading. 6 - 7: if it was cleaned up it would be good. 7 - 8: good effort, worth downloading. 8 - 9: excellent. 9+ : like a unicorn. * difficulty score is also modified by how hard the author claims it is and whether this claim is supported on playing it.