SAWED-OFF WADS - DEAN OF DOOM - S2E18

[@_antares031]

An episode like this is definitely welcome. A good doom wad doesn't have to include 32 levels or more, after all. Much appreciated for covering Grove, which is not just a doom level, but an enchanting work of art.

[@atifarshad7624]

MtPain27: * Gives Doom City a C+* Doomkid: "Do not speak with me anymore"

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Friendship ender moment

[@audiosurfarchive]

Am I just having smoke blown up my ass or has DoomKid got kinda a.. reputation? I recall seeing /vr/min arguing about him; occasional YT comments and forum posts.

[@MtPain27]

Lololol

[@TVdinnermasterchef]

@@audiosurfarchive he's made many, many custom WADS and Midis, so I'm guessing he's very well known in the community. He helped me out a hell of a lot too when I was trying to figure stuff out for my first map, plus helped with various questions I had concerning making a MIDI for the aforementioned map. Not sure of any controversy, if that's what you're hinting at, seems like a stand up guy though.

[@DoomKid]

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[@nkjmsgr]

Your reviews on my maps gave me some motivations to make maps again. Thanks for checking out my Water Spirit. I made some maps in other project, specifically for Plutonia 3, so I hope you'll enjoy my maps in the future! -Manbou(Burabojunior)

[@hebonky]

It sucks how people never got the joke wads for example in Doom 2:2 the whole joke was that it was just doom 2 because of time travel shenanigans, but all that was down in the reviews were people cussing out B.P..R.D because they were probably all too dense. I can see why he left the doom community; back then the community was more like a ball of malice.

[@EnclaveOfObsidian]

For those of you looking to view particular map reviews: Doom City: 1:38 Chord 1: 2:59 Chord 2: 4:01 Chord NG: 4:48 Chord G: 5:40 Chord 3: 6:30 Nuts: 8:13 Void: 11:06 Nuts 3: 14:13 Grove: 17:13 Disturbia: 22:04 Frozen Time: 26:03 Phobos Mission Control: 27:55 Tech Gone Bad: 29:04 Water Spirit: 32:05 The Given: 33:33

[@DoomKid]

Champion

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

Quick look at Nuts 2: 14:20

[@MarkaNgamer]

A man of culture! Kudos

[@lbsc1201]

I'd like to see more of this format. There is a certain purity to the single-level wad. In author fun facts, Doom CIty creator Shamus Young is now relatively well-known as a video game blogger.

[@ErisCake]

I love the format and the idea. Your 'arcade room of wads' ties it all together really neatly, I'm super impressed, gj!!

[@theshep]

The thing I like is that now it can be replenished with new wads, and if there aren't enough maps, maybe the cabs are off or say "out of order". and of course the playable megawad on the last computer can rotate as well.

[@kakhome1]

I was coming on here to write about Shamus Young, I'll just say RIP 😞 DooM City has Doomcute visuals that still compel me to this day, such as the burger and 7-11 signs and gas station (admittedly outdone in Heartland). He also designed Slugfest and Phobos: Relive The Nightmare, two DooM II episodic wads.

[@lemonlytical2071]

Was excited for something like this related to community projects, but this is awesome as well, excited as hell!

[@CarmeloSantosF]

Man, I almost cried during the Grove review. The music combined with your writing got me. Amazing work as always, can't wait for your next videos.

[@Absoti]

Your appreciation for B.P.R.D's music is why this is my favorite episode yet (aside from your Mucus Flow study). I remember playing the Nuts series back in 2009, but that 3rd entry was something spiritual indeed. Numerous times where I started the wad, then just pause and listen to the music through the headphones.

[@TristanClarkMusic]

Fantastic episode! damn...I never played Grove and knew nothing about it other than hearing it mentioned every know and then but what a beautiful piece of art, must admit I started to get a little emotional during that review. The Given makes me a pretty nostalgic as I spent most of 2017 writing music for dobu, I did The Given's music between tracks for Panophobia (an old community project that went into closed development, if it's ever finished it'll be the closest thing we have to a dobu megawad, as well as giving the community some new maps from mouldy/cyriak). I'm a bit of a sucker for atmosphere, lore and world-building so I was fascinated by Occula. There's even a nearly 3000 word prologue hidden away inside the WAD file which really expands on this, while the setting seems joyous and pleasant enough at first, the story behind the player character is really anything but, and I feel it makes the The Given's conclusion a lot heavier.

[@MtPain27]

Oh man, I know. I steered away from showing the ending, but it's so bleak. Almost invalidates your struggle to get to the top of the mountain. Thanks for commenting, and for your MIDI...it kept me company for probably three hours over two playthroughs. I can hum it to myself now haha.

[@calcium8347]

doom city was actually such a huge inspiration for me when i was younger.

[@generalroasterock8114]

This was delightfully digestible and right on time. The Given is one of my all time favorite maps despite lacking any combat, and really paved the way for people to be justified in making vistas rather than just Doom levels. I’d also recommend Moonlight also from DGM, as it’s pretty much a monochromatic spiritual successor that has even managed to keep me from the end. I’m definitely saving the Grove section for later, but after nearly every other BPRD suggestion I’ve received, wanting to play it leaves me optimistically cautious. His gameplay style falls on deaf ears here, and many of the stylistic choices seem very aligned with early 2000s jank. This is why Disturbia comes as such a shock: BPRD seemed to be alone in his chaos, and this map proves it to be harnessable. One can only imagine what modern day prowess could make with that mindset Great stuff as always, really rekindling exploration of lost art for a lot of people.

[@reddoomedearth4020]

After watching DoomKid play through Doom City, seeing it pop up here was a delight, and seeing Nuts 3 in the thumbnail kinda sealed the deal for me. I've thought of a lot of shorter stuff, like your episode of Epic and Hell Ground, and wanted to see more stuff like that, where you had some nice bite-sized chunks of Doom to grade. Great stuff! Edit: You're right about BPRD's music. I'd love for him to come back just to make a MIDI or two, he's truly got a mind like no one else.

[@mokomothman5713]

As time has gone on watching your episodes, I've gotten a little more inspired to make stuff for the community- mostly music (mapping is an art that really escapes me, I think my brain is full of holes) and I've started uploading. But I say that to say this- your content, Doomkid's content, Zero Master, Decino, Dwars and everyone in the community have started to give me a source of inspiration that I believed was gone when I grew up. It's hard to describe. So thank you for doing this series. To see the wide variety of maps, aesthetics, and your personal input on how you perceive and interact with these WADs makes me want to make a greater impact than simply just playing the game. Thank you.

[@Pengairxan]

Finished watching and it was quite a good ride, the return of BPRD and those that follow in his steps, Romero's tech bases, a brief history lesson and so much more. On the final statement of if this should be a spinoff or not, I wouldn't mind seeing this as part of the regular lineup as it allows for smaller WADS to still appear within the lineup quite well (a similar opinion I have to Halloween 2021's video)

[@ShadesMan]

Love the computer room transition to each map. 18:00 - "Grove" has a damn nice sky!

[@spineappletea]

MtPain puts out some of the best content on this platform like it's nothing.

[@jacekbourne]

Excellent. Hell Yeah! Disturbia, Grove, The Given, Void, and the Chord Series all in the same video!

[@ludi1982]

I love the little computers between the WADs! It seems like the doom-cute has rubbed off on the professor.

[@narutouzumaki851]

You know, I was sorta expecting a video about the rest of B.P.R.D'S wads. Back in november, when I first watched your Mucus Flow review, I had a sort of existencial crave for this one person. B.P.R.D. How could he make stuff so weirdly different but yet incredibly beautiful on the doom engine? And by a bit of digging, and using an old shady e-mail service, I found a NAME. I had found the creator. Obviously I don't want to cross boundries and I won't post his name here for everyone to see. I tried contacting said person, but have yet to recieve a reply... but what I did find was a video animation, made on 2010, uploaded to youtube, by this said person. That video definetely had B.P.R.D's signature all over it, and I'm just marvelled by its creative undertone. It's just.. It's the same style as the doom levels. Stars, music, alien, all included. Anyways, I think I'm just trying to say that your reviews deeply moved me not only to love doom again, but to find love in its level creation and its art. Definetely, smooth writing and nostalgic feelings go hand in hand to make these series absolutely beautiful.. thanks MtPain!

[@MtPain27]

Thank you for sharing this. I don't know how you found it, but thank you.

[@narutouzumaki851]

@@MtPain27 If you're interested in watching it, i'd mail you the link to the video, in the interest of pure admiration, along with how i found it

[@MtPain27]

@@narutouzumaki851 I found it myself but thanks for offering!

[@DukeOnkled]

I do wish so badly to understand that fella. He has something, a certain piece of his humanity, that I feel I don't.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Oooo, I love the name of this. Really fits the idea of fastening the little shorties together in one full-sized package. Should the show continue far into the future, I hope for sequels! 😍 Doom City is a map I have debated with myself for _years_ now about submitting to decino's viewer submissions. It's a real sight to see even by today's standards, and a break from hard and often slaughter-y maps he plays. Especially given its age - remember, there was no Doom Builder back in '95! Void is just fun. Worthy of casual play for any Doom gamer, even if you'd have to brush up on Hexen's bestiary first for best gameplay results - for example, the Heresiarch is invulnerable to anything and everything the protagonist can launch his way while he has his little shield orbs. And I highly recommend using GZDoom on hardware acceleration with sprite billboarding set to X/Y axis: it'll make your platforming life MUCH easier. I don't mind being spoiled by you, Professor, so Grove it is! It really feels like the kind of map that would benefit from a very dim and short-reaching flashlight add-on if you play in GZDoom. (To the rest of the class, _yes_ I love flashlights, shut up. 🤪) The Given reminds me a whoooole lot of Myst, for reasons that should be obvious. Sounds like a delightful time. We can give it a difficulty of P-, for "easygoing puzzle-y". 35:54 OH MA GAWSH 🤯 LOOK MA I'M ON TV!!!

[@AdamM3377]

There's something so beautiful about BPRD's work. He has among the most tranquil visions of mappers, and I hope we can continue to see the equally beautiful things come out of this community for years to come.

[@kinetic03]

35:55 Good thing I commented in that other video, looks like I was only one to ever suggest a short wads video :\ This was my favorite video of yours so far, the diversity of the wads in pretty much all facets is perfect. And somehow, I had not known of the existence of Grove or Water Spirit or The Given. Here are some notes from my wonderful viewing experience of your video: - I knew BPRD was a legend, but I think seeing Grove solidified him as the most legendary mapper to me because even though I play doom almost solely for the combat and his combat isn't my jam, he outdoes pretty much everyone else in creativity, vision, and immersion. Ribbiks might be my favorite mapper, but that's because he seems to fork from BPRD and emphasizes combat while maintaining BPRD's creativity, vision, and immersion, although to a lesser extent. While BPRD may be gone from the doom community, I don't think anyone can tell the history of doom without dedicating a significant portion of it to him, dude's fingerprints remain all over some of the best mappers today and best maps made by others (Disturbia for example), and I hope he's living a successful life. - The chord series does an outstanding job for it's time in terms of lighting, very surprising to me. The combat also looked pretty tight and sophisticated for it's time, what a well choreographed series. - The Given doesn't look like something I'd enjoy very much, mainly because I hate medieval/fairytale themes with a passion, but I can appreciate DBG even more simply for how the map looked, what an environment he created/can create. - That little map you made with all of today's wads for the intro to the video was great, did you make it yourself? You have some mapping talent, maybe you can review your own wad someday :p. - I feel like short wads or single level sets tend to be more likely to be magnus opuses, since a mapper can throw all their effort into a map or few, with complete creative control, as opposed to a megawad map submission which typically are restricted in some capacity, whether it be by theme or difficulty (map slot placement). Short little wads like these are usually made by one person who has a vision and can fully realize it by doing everything their self, employing the most passion into their work possible. Every single one of these short wads had a ton of effort poured into them (except Nuts 1 & 2 I suppose :\ ) I would absolutely love to see more videos of short wads, and I would bet there's universal approval from everyone for this video. Maybe I didn't like all the wads featured, but some I did, and I learned some history about the game and appreciate the effort went into these sort of magnum opuses from creators over the years. You somehow keep making better videos, just an absolute 10/10 episode, can't wait to see more, particularly for videos of this ilk

[@tjg121389]

Great episode! I'm glad I pointed you towards Water Spirit in an earlier comment I left, so that was a treat to see that immediately upon watching the intro. It's utterly fantastic, and I'm super happy to see all the maps in the A range. I won't comment on every single WAD on here, just the ones I've played, which other than WS is only a few. I remember when Doomworld's 100 Most Memorable Maps came out, 2 maps came to my mind immediately that I hoped were included in the list: Culture Shock from Ancient Aliens, and Void. I was very happy to see them not only both make the list, but be right next to each other in the top 10. Void was one of the first Doom WADs I ever played, along with Stephen Clark's stuff at the time. This was around '04-'05. I played Void after Stephen's stuff and it completely blew me away. I had known ZDoom could do cut scenes and other things normal Doom couldn't from playing Super Sonic Doom, but Void did these things in a way that was so creative and surreal. It's Alice In Wonderland in Doom in a way. I haven't played that map since that first time, but I remembered every single thing you showed in this video. I was hoping you'd show the part where the other marine gets killed, as that was the part I remember the most from it. And yeah, the platforming is the toughest part of the map for sure, though that close quarters cyb was very tough for 15 year old me. Void is a map whose aesthetics, atmosphere, and sheer surrealist nature has not been replicated by anyone since. Though this does remind me that Jimmy just released a map heavily inspired by this that I meant to play. Maybe I should do that before starting Elementalism. Romero's 2 maps are pretty fun. I didn't like PMC as much as TGB though. PMC has some cool moments to it, but TGB is just an amazing episode ender. I loved the cracked floors and corruption that the base is going through. Like you mentioned, it's a type of environmental storytelling that you don't get in the IWADs. I remember being so impressed with TGB when it came out. It had been close to 25 years since Romero had made a Doom map, and he still had it. Then Sigil came out and proved these 2 maps weren't flukes. If One Humanity is anything to go by, Sigil 2 is going to be fantastic as well. Going back to Water Spirit, you pretty much nailed everything I liked about it. Manbou's maps in JPCP were all very good, so when someone told me about Water Spirit on Doomworld and I found out Manbou was burabojunior, I knew I had to play it. Yes, these maps look so much like Ribbiks' maps in the visual design department, but they aren't nearly as challenging as Ribbiks can be, and I like that. It does feel like gorgeous looking maps tend to be extremely difficult, and while these aren't super hard, they definitely killed me a lot. They never felt unfair though, thankfully. And man, these 3 maps are some of the best looking maps I've ever seen. As for the rest of these WADs in the video, it's cool to see all the different types of mapping styles that have come over the years. Idk if I'll play any of them, but Disturbia and The Given look really interesting at least. And I'm still surprised I haven't given Frozen Time a play.

[@mikemurdock7234]

GROVE was the first BPRD map I played. Like you, I also got stuck and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do in the beginning. It's so dark with software rendering and when I finally managed to get out of the beginning and walk down the path, the Archville encounter scared me to the point it made me jump. I had to replay it in OpenGL and it's definitely one of the most beautiful maps ever made, but also very atmospheric. It balances adventure with a touch of horror all while being able to maintain a unique goofy vibe. In your other video about the Mucus Flow, I remember a comment you made about the MIDI, that you played it on loop in your head reflecting your current circumstances in life. Well, that's how I reacted to Grove the first time I played it. BPRD definitely made his music from the heart. The music to Grove is atmospheric, dreadful sounding but also happy at the same time. The MIDI itself is almost like a journey. BPRD's music makes me think of those musicians out there who might not be the most technically skilled, or understand music theory, but were able to perform at such a high level, there's an emotion connection there.

[@vibesplaneoverflow-bz1xy]

This episode came out the day I left my dead end job and took my life back. It will always be special to me. Thank you, Dean. ❤

[@AJXTHEWALL]

The fact you gave doom city a C+ makes me cry. ( PS Play doom 2:2 it’s BPRD’s best work by far )

[@blue_boule3360]

Thank you so much for talking about Grove. I discovered this wad after your video on the mucus flow and it went straight to my top 5 favorite maps. B.P.R.D's creations are intriguing and magical, Grove is no exception. I love the guy to bits and I hope he will never be forgotten.

[@eggboy9126]

Brilliant, this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted, exploration of more short-form wads, which are often far more consistent than an obligatory mega wad.

[@whatsacowify]

This is one of my favourite episodes you've done. While I was aware of all of these, this definitely opens you up to bringing lesser known stuff to a wider audience. Plus it works with my crappy attention span because every few minutes there's something new and exciting!

[@MtPain27]

One of my new favs as well. Thanks for sharing BMO!

[@TheBigShamus]

This was a fantastic episode, and it's brilliant to hear that you enjoyed this so much. I hope that it encourages you to make more of this content, as it is thoroughly enjoyable. Great job!

[@Counter-Chicken]

you’ve been absolutely hitting it out of the park recently, keep it up

[@continuum_mid]

List of WADs has me very excited for this. Especially Water Spirit (a great sort of "bonus" to Manbou's JPCP work), and the Chord series.

[@emmaessex]

grove is life-changing. one of the best i've ever played. really happy to see the chord series here too. would love to see more like this. there are so many brilliant one-offs with concepts and design philosophies that really can't stretch out into full wads. the more you loosen this format, the better it'll get, i'm sure! def use the "shaders" light setting in dsda-doom's opengl mode if you can, otherwise adjusting gamma will help you out - a few of these definitely looked darker than intended. grove is supposed to be dim, but holy moly! hahaha ps. you'll be converted to a platforming-liker soon enough ;)

[@tompprime2240]

I do have to say that this is my most anticipated series in KZbin. So good!

[@ChrisJEPlace]

You already know what wad I'm here for. But before I talk about it, I wanna say I absolutely loved this episode! I loved seeing your thoughts on all of these, especially Nuts 3 and The Given, such beautiful maps and with perfect descriptions from you! :) Of course though I want to not only talk about it, but I want to sincerely thank you for talking about Grove. (This'll a bit long sorry lol) I know you messaged me about it on Discord, but actually hearing someone talk about just how genuinely beautiful and lovely this map is, aswell hearing how much you appreciate it, was so so heartwarming. I've seen a lot of people talk about and play Grove, all of them talking about it as a Doom map, as in, something you play, and if it's unbalanced, unfair, or ugly, they're deemed as bad maps (yes I have seen people call Grove an ugly map), so because of that, almost everyone I've seen talk about it, talks about how much they hated it (at least their first time through). However I personally don't think you can look at Grove that way. To me, Grove isn't trying to be a fun, challenging Doom map with thought provoking puzzles sprinkled here and there, to me, Grove isn't trying to be anything that already exists, Grove IS it's own world. One that wasn't built for you, or to be accessible; everything feels either completely natural, or inhabited by the monsters who've over run the forest, such as the tiny switch in the cave, the book in Smugla's shack, or the several switches where only one of them lowers the way back from the fire pit, all of them feel way to out of the way because to me they were made to be hidden from you, and only known by the monsters who put them there. One thing that just makes me feel so warm and safe are Grove's secrets. None of them have any monsters in them and are always have light to glow and protect you. They all either feel like they're natural leftovers from the monsters taking over, or they were put there by... someone. Don't know who it could possibly be, but it always feels like they know someone will traverse through the Grove and try to conquer everything it has, and will absolutely need help for it. I think this is best illustrated by the alien plasma secret, having all the signs stored up there and only accessible after finding everything feels like it was made by whoever put everything there. I think the only thing I haven't touched on is Grove's visuals and music, but honestly I really don't think I can justify how masterful it all is with my writing, playing the map itself illustrates that far better than I could ever describe. I'm sorry if this is too long, but I really wanted to emphasise everything I love about this map, and show why it's so so important to me. Everything that goes into Grove and its beauty is all so immaculate and passionate to the point where it genuinely brings me to tears. It is one the most amazing, and perfect pieces of art I have ever had the fortune of experiencing. (By the way, if you have actually read all this, thank you so much. I love this singular Doom map more than most pieces of art I've seen, and it really means a lot to me that anyone is willing to listen, read, or even put up with everything I have to say about it.) By the way the reason the mushroom secret's visuals are broken is because of OpenGL lol, it looks fine in software. (It was made for ZDoom afterall.)

[@robowisanveithasung6022]

after reading this, it makes so much more sense.. appreciate it!

[@William_Huber]

Loved this episode ! It's nice and refreshing to have unique maps / smaller wads getting the spotlight for once. Pretty cool intro, too. :)

[@bigpash6701]

I'd love to see a spin off series dedicated to these mini-WADs in nice digestible format. Your megawad videos are top shelf but sometimes it's nice to have a treat instead of a banquet.

[@basiloregano]

Also I'm so glad you reviewed the standalone John romero doom 1 maps! Keep up the good work Mount Pain!!

[@johnarmstrong5533]

This episode was really good, ably covering a whole bunch of eras and ethoses. I especially appreciate the framing device of the computer room and how it allowed the episode to change gears and transition from concept to concept.

[@MrGRmask]

Honestly, a lot of those are great for their time, but I can't deny that it took me more than the amount of patience needed in order to appreciate what they try to do. Remember that among all those nice examples, there were a lot of wads that were either lacking in, well, anything, trying to just pull some jiggles and laughs, or they were terry wads. ooohh...terry wads....scarred for a lifetime. That being said, some of the examples in this video really slipped under my radar. Guess I'll try them out later!

[@TheTimmynatoRex]

Shamus Young unfortunately died a few days ago.

[@blxck7553]

Just subbed. Doom wads provide eternal content considering how many are out there and how there's an insane amount of DOPE wads.

[@moonliquor4591]

Your writing has hit another level during this episode, I really appreciate the attempts to covey the overlap between map creation and art. Keep it up!

[@Ren-bo7bj]

I would be happy to see more Sawed Off Wads styled videos of groups of small but good wads, there are tons of high quality maps out there I'd love to see brought to the surface.

[@BiodegradableYTP]

There are so many smaller map sets and single map releases that absolutely deserve to be featured on this channel, so I'd be really stoked to see you create a supplementary series just for them, mate. It'd be a great way to diversify your videos even moreso and inform the wider gaming space that the Doom community has more than just 32 map megaWADs to offer. Incidentally, if you love BPRD so much, why don't you marry him?!?! ;^) :^P Another awesome video.

[@snugasapugonarug]

This got randomly got recommended to me the other day. Great channel, I'm always digging for more Doom maps. I'll listen to these at work and download whatever sounds good.

[@jinxie1080]

What a great video!! I hope that this format allows you to give Magnolia a shot! I'd say imo it's more accessible than some of his other wads like Stardate or Swim with the Whales, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Ribbiks design philosophy! Thank you again for all the great content MtPain!

[@andreadelcortona6230]

Every episode you do, you gift joy and great entartainment. Thanks

[@adrijanvuckovic1004]

this format is great, hope to see it more often!

[@THEGRUMPTRUCK]

I've seen and played many incredible maps over 20+ years of DooM But the Japanese-created maps are just fantastic and phenomenal in ways I cannot begin to put to words.

[@terryjpendragon]

"But subsequent C(h)ords tighten things up." I love it XD

[@deaththekid8700]

Always makes my day to see more of your content

[@punk_yt]

As much as I love the megawad coverage, these episodes that cover smaller releases or single maps are my jam! The hub map with all the PC’s loaded up was charming af as well, another solid watch courtesy of the Dean! :)

[@HarveyGinger]

This is the episode I've been waiting for since you first started

[@kakhome1]

This was a great episode! Some comments on individuals, I'm going to go first with a few where I have other related suggestions for any potential either viewer requests or another Sawed Off episode, then do the rest in order: Void - Hit the nail on the head. This map has some incredibly frustrating aspects but a whole lot of charm to this day as well. Very unique. I'd recommend considering a look at an inspired/successor map 'Void and Rainbow' from Serious Mood that was released in 2017. Water Spirit - Along with Map20 of JPCP, probably includes burabo's best work, very impressive stuff here. This was possibly inspired by Miasma, a classic map by Tourniquet that I'd recommend very highly and even uses a certain midi... The Given - Purely puzzle maps with no combat are a truly unique idea, and dobu delivers here by and far, with visuals to boot. Two other dobu single maps I'd recommend: Moonlight, which is another puzzle only map; and Saturnine Chapel, a map with incredible visuals and extremely hard combat coming from the same year as The Given. Now the others: Doom City - Glad this got coverage, it's absolutely an old level I recommend everyone see at least once. Doomcute city on a remarkable level, especially for 95. Chord - Esoecially NG, G, and 3 have their deserved reputation as brutal maps of the 90s and I too felt they helped guide Ribbiks et al NUTS - Grade and Difficulty haha 😀 Grove - I'll never call it quite to par with Mucus Flow, but it's another map and midi by BPRD that earned him easily 2004's Mapper of the Year. Disturbia - I find it sort of a coin toss which map people will prefer. It needs a *little* less learning than Mucus Flow, but not by much. The RoTT midi is a good fit but it's no Mucus Flow midi. Frozen Time - Agreed that the non-Plutonia maps of Hell Ground, and even in gameplay Bloodwall from PL2, outshine it. Still a decent winter map. Romero's maps - Personally I like Tech Gone Bad better than any original E1 map (when all held to current standards), and E1M4b is the weaker of the two but I still like more than the original E1M4.

[@tjg121389]

I forgot about Void and Rainbow! So there is at least a couple of maps inspired by Void. I was over here thinking that Void's atmosphere wasn't matched by anything since.

[@therealmahoushoujo]

This is honestly a neat concept to explore smaller scale wads, and that I can certainly appreciate. Good stuff!

[@TVdinnermasterchef]

Fantastic episode mate. Seen a few of these before on other vids, but Water Spirit blew me away. I shall have to add that to 'The List'

[@endless_doom5337]

You're a machine pumping some many videos and WADs!

[@MtnSmithy]

I'm really happy you're giving attention to smaller/single-map WADs. Personally, I tend to play single-map WADs way more than Megawads, so more reviews/recommendations of them, the better. Void is one of my all-time favorites. I love the style and atmosphere of Void. I've also played one called Doom Center, which seems to basically be an updated version of Doom City.

[@zomnibot]

It's spring break at my university, but class with the Dean is still in session! I love this newest format, and I am so taken with your custom "hub room."

[@DukeOnkled]

I'm convinced that there's just no way to run The Given at a consistent 60FPS.

[@JunoJPG]

Sawed off wads are my fav doom content on the entire platifourm keep it up mtpain27

[@needless7854]

I never thought that I'll see you playing any NUTS wad. Amazing as always!

[@mrhondo12345]

Really cool episode. There's lots of standalone maps in the Doom community that deserve more attention.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Alienated too!

[@Ayeloo]

Some friends and I made a small-scope 7 map wad last year, I'd love to see a video with a handful of small, lesser know mapsets because these tightly-knit community projects are always charming to me

[@DragoonEnRegalia]

Now here's an excellent way to frame all these singles and minisodes! The hub room gives me fond memories of duel map compilations, and it's still being used today for things like megawad packs. I definitely agree with you on the Chord maps, the latter two of which deserve their canonization. Chord 3 taught me how to optimize and strategize in a pared down but still menacing setup, much easier to grok than equivalents in newer maps(sets). Sailor's in music and education IIRC, but it'd cool to see if he'd be willing to do some MIDIs or even map again should we make contact. Grove and The Given really give Team TNT the what-for in pairing well-designed switch hunts with compelling aesthetics and whispers of worldbuilding. These kinds of maps are rare for a reason since it's a niche map genre within a niche, sadly. Puzzle-heavy magnum opera tend to be a tough sell even for experienced creators, let alone players, and so it's great when these adventures got spotlighted here and in the Cacowards. This sub-series is definitely best suited for potpourri, but it'd be nice to have some themed ones every now and then (ex. single maps/small sets featuring loads of DoomCute, etc.).

[@ultrak0w]

Definitely do a spin off series with this format!

[@kulrigalestout]

I feel like the best description for Nuts.wad is a crayon drawing some kid made that every parent in the neighborhood thinks is cute and puts on their fridge. Knowing that the allegorical kid is disappointed that something he put actual effort into was overlooked because of it makes me feel a bit sad for him.

[@audiosurfarchive]

This is sick; you should do this alot more. Great format and recommendations.

[@PrismaticAngel]

Nice to see you found a solution to the idea of reviewing standalone wads.

[@boy6432]

Was really pleased when you brought up Nuts 3, that map makes me feel things

[@protostar5946]

I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I'm calling it now: Nuts 1 (actually, no - the *entire* Nuts trilogy) is getting an instant X+ for difficulty (or at least something in the A- to X range). It's stupidly hard for the player to beat in general and also stupidly hard for your computer to run without instantly *crashing. :V* Cool episode! Was expecting something like this for April Fool's Day, but oh well.

[@expendableround6186]

Not even PRBoom+ could help my laptop run it.

[@sunvieightmaster88]

"Remember, The Sky May Be is still in the pending"

[@shiba2ndworlder]

I knew you'll do an episode like this! Great work man!

[@sunvieightmaster88]

I loved this project, Awesome work.

[@coldcatbrr]

I really enjoy the idea for this one. Always excited for a new upload from you!

[@sirbill_greebi3811]

Oh, I forgot to bring this up last time when I requested the Brutal Doom Hell on Earth starter pack: the wad comes with two "Classes," one has the normal Doom 2 loadout. Perhaps that will make it more appealing.

[@robowisanveithasung6022]

oh god i can't even imagine the hell levels

[@bazboo1284]

This was a good format for an episode, really digging the hub room

[@tobiyoarcangel]

After giving it a quick googleing, turns out that Void was indeed heavily inspired by American McGee's Alice. A lot of your footage gave me whiplash of that game. *Good*. But jokes aside, very good episode! Really entertaining, it brings a different eye to Doom, if that somehow makes sense. Like, you went for a diverse set of wads and that's really admirable since you covered the more artsy side of of Doom!

[@burningchrome8622]

wow love the change up and the work ya put into the intro

[@joseballestero339]

This was a very exciting episode and it would definitely seem appropriate to have 1-2 per season. I think there is a lot of talent in display here. Love the content as always man P.S: My last name is pronounced Ba-yes-te-ro btw ;)

[@MtPain27]

Noted! I will amend, thanks Jose.

[@harleymiller1992]

Was hoping for Okuplok, but man you’ve done an awesome job here :p

[@Rymante]

This was a very interesting episode of Dean of Doom! I always wondered if you'd find some way to cover smaller one off maps & projects, you pulled it off wonderfully in my humble opinion ^_^ I hope we see 'Sawed Off Wads 2' at some point, maybe in Season 3? I feel like I learned a lot watching this, I had no idea about the Chord series or the Manbou maps for example.

[@jonascarrillo8699]

Thanks for the spoiler alerts. I have suscribed an dliekd all yout vids, but having that kind of care for your viewers is something that talks only good things about who you are. Thanks so much.

[@MajdFreiji]

Hi! So here's an unusual thing to ask: see, by watching your videos, I not only learn about new and exciting maps and WADs, but I also do learn a fair bit of English too! I can't begin to count the number of times I was speaking to friends and words I first heard on this channel just casually making it into my speech, thanks a lot for that! If I don't immediately catch a word of expression on my first watch, I usually rewind the video to have another listen and perhaps even googling it. I was stomped at around 23:39 ish, when you described B.P.R.D's attitude towards testing his maps. I listened to that bit way too many times to count and I still can't put my finger on the expression you used, and the automatically generated subtitles are not doing me any favours. What is the exact wording you used in that sentence? I feel I could use that sometime. Again, thanks a million!

[@MtPain27]

It’s ironically a Spanish language phrase: “que será, será,” which means “whatever will be, will be.” Essentially I was saying that B.P.R.D. doesn’t worry too much about making his maps perfect

[@MajdFreiji]

I do know a bit of Spanish too, and I did understand what you were going for from the context, but I missed out on the actual wording (do check out the subtitles though for this part, they're not very helpful). Thanks a lot!

[@MRDoom12]

i really like this style! maybe this could be a mid and end season thing! I LOVE THIS!!!

[@hornbuckle0wns]

New viewer here, found your channel through this here video and went back to binge your entire series. Been playing doom for a decade and a half so I already know most of these wads but you got me to pick up a couple I put down halfway through. However I'd say the most profound effect you had on me was exposing me to BPRD's work. I unfortunately didn't used to pay too much attention to map authors, not very active in the community so I just kind of looked for megawads I hadn't played yet. While BPRD is very hit or miss for me (I really didn't enjoy the mucus flow to be honest, it wasn't terrible and the gameplay was indeed unique but I found it mostly confusing and a chore to get monsters to behave the way I wanted them to. Only ran through it twice, although I really don't plan any more.) playing the grove was transcendent. It reminded me just how strangely profound and touching this engine and base gameplay is. I've been going through doom fatigue and mostly bouncing off of various gameplay mods to enjoy them for 10 maps into something or other then put them on a shelf, but you've got me back in to the thick of it. I'm deeply saddened that like most artists I only found BPRD's playful and charismatic brilliance long after they had left the scene, but thanks for showing me it at all. That kind of stuff aside, if you're interested in some wad recommendations, I could come up with plenty, but I'll narrow it down to just a few, most important to least. I could not think of a custom level set that I attach more memories to nor remember as vividly as fragport. I know, ultimate doomer might not illicit the most confidence, but as far as I can remember there's very few if any forced zdoom gimmicks that interfere with the maps. It's a retro feeling adventure wad with plenty signs of age, but it truly feels like an epic to me, as much now as it did the first time I played through it. Admittedly I haven't picked it up in a while, but even so I'd prefer a fresh look at it without nostalgia goggles that I'm sure I'd have playing through. I see you're opening yourself more to modded gameplay content, having played struggle and rowdy rudy, so I'd recommend a surprisingly sleeper hit, skulldash. It's authored by dragonfly so if you're hesitant to trust ultimate doomer for 32 levels, you might have an easier time giving this one a try. It's a UV-MAX speedrun sim, making you finish levels by collecting coins placed throughout the short fun levels and decision making as for what enemies are more time efficient to kill or leave to their devices. The coins and I'm fairly sure some textures are the only modded content I remember. I don't remember beating it, not having been very skilled at doom at the time, but I do remember having a surprising amount of fun trying to pretend like I was while I could wing it. Lastly, you've mentioned kama sutra enough times that I think it probably warrants its own episode, but uh, I'd understand if a certain something was stopping you. In any case, even if you don't give any of these the light of day, even if you just skimmed this way too long comment for whatever you might be looking for, thank you for delighting us all in a comfortable review of not only doom levels but displaying and teaching doom culture to those like me that have been living under a rock only to grab at new junk food wads or the next gameplay mod with bright shiny colors and baby mode difficulty. Oh btw, play grove in prboom with shader lighting mode. For my first time no other light mode could compare. You can see at least a couple feet around you (I always imagine it like your guy is holding a shitty little torch or something) while still keeping that big dark wonderous feeling and not dismantling the atmosphere wholesale with bright sectors. When you get into fully lit areas like grove central things'll be a little extra bright but that's far and away a tolerable price to play grove like that. Also, definitely keep this series going. I personally almost only ever play megawads, enjoying the feeling of playing a full game's worth of maps and the achievement it brings, but you got me to play stuff like grove, nuts 3, and skillsaw's hanging gardens.

[@furrychiefkeef2454]

man i float to another plain of existence when you upload

[@DaberuzJuega]

30:40 So no Eternal Doom? :( This was a nice change and would be awesome to see another episode of Sawed Off Wads. There a lot of good wads that are only one or two levels long. I've played some short wads, but I don't know if they'll qualify. They have one level, but they are kinda long. These are decade.wad, cheogs.wad and zdoom community project 1 and 2.

[@jtpal12]

Glad to see you do one off levels too! Hope you review Verdant Citadel, one of my personal favorite levels.

[@Lvl31Gardevoir]

This was so awesome! love your stuff, MtPain27!!

[@timsweeney9283]

Great episode Dean, loved the format.

[@maazwaseem8313]

FINALLY...I was wondering when you'd tackle single-map wads. Something tells me I wont have to wait very long for you finally covering Deus Vult then :'> Oh, and considering the sheer amount of quality bite-sized wads they've churned out over the years, I reckon Ribbiks/Dannebubinga will have an entire segment of their own :p

[@Dan-bz2nh]

Holy Hell too perhaps? Lol just kidding.

[@RikouHogashi]

I just found this channel man this Doom Tuber is really chill consider me subbed

[@vali6717]

More fodder for whenever I'm craving Doom in a bite sized package. Very interesting.

[@xSnakeBerryx]

Doom City must have really paved the way of Build Engine design of 3D Realms. Nobody have seen anything like that in a game 3d space like that before. A mod did it before anyone. It should be remebered more as an important peice of video game design history.

[@ragnorberntsen316]

the TNT computer at the end had me thinking you would be reviewing the rejected Map30 from TNT that one of the Casali brothers posted, heh. I have yet to try that myself.

[@Ashura96]

Absolutely amazing concept to review mini and single level wads.