Doom II - Realm of Chaos: 25th Anniversary Edition - MAP12: Home Sweet Home (Ultra-Violence 100%)

Hello again fellow Doomers, welcome back to another playthrough. It's time for quite a hefty commitment from me - a full megawad. Not just any megawad, but an expansive remaster of Realm of Chaos; a mid-1996 creation by The Macintosh Team (TMT) which was kind of sidelined and forgotten at that time. Spearheaded by Cammy, this updated and modernized version of RoC gives some much-needed love to the ancient megawad through "fresh new lighting, clearer progression, improved visuals, and beefier action. It comes pre-packaged with the custom sprites that were relegated to a side-wad in the original, and is scored by an all-new bespoke soundtrack". Best of all, it's 100% vanilla-compatible. That's an excellent pitch, so let's see how that facelifted old-school action fares!
Basic info
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IWAD: doom2.wad
Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (pistol start)
Map authors: Jason Fowler & Cammy
Music: "Hush" by Cammy
Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
Compatibility level: 2 (Vanilla)
QoL mods: Colored Blood, Ultrawide Statusbar (included in WAD pack)
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Additional notes
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Welcome home, marine. With Cammy's appropriately titled "Hush" as an eerie ambiental soundtrack, the unfurling of this level is a true masterclass in atmospheric world building, a slow crawler where the deceitful stillness of the bastion is coupled with efficient outbursts of violence under blue sky and above an equally blue water. If anything, 'Home Sweet Home' reminds me most of 'The Gantlet' and 'The Waste Tunnels', and it's basically some sort of combination between the two, with a bit of 'The Inmost Dens' sprinkled on top thanks to the hitscanner surprises. Unlike any of these three, however, it benefits from 30 years of evolution in map design and a conceptual sensibility that would have been unthinkable back in '94. This fusion of classic and modern is beautiful to see and experience, and once again I have to give Cammy a lot of credit for breathing new life into the groundwork laid by TMT. Take your time to absorb this one - if you do, you'll see how much of a banger it is.
Secret 1: 0:42
Secret 2: 0:57
Secret 3: 4:28
Secret 4: 7:27 (trigger at 7:00)
Secret 5: 7:51
Links
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WAD:
www.doomworld.com/forum/topic...
QoL mods:
Colored Blood:
www.doomworld.com/forum/topic...