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Doom WAD Logbook

Posted on 2025-02-11

This is not an ordinary blog post and it will not interest most readers. But for me personally it serves to record which Doom WADs I have already played and what my verdict is on them. Having already played a few WADs, I’ve unfortunately lost track of them and would now like to take a more structured approach.

It’s worth mentioning that I’m a casual player with a mediocre skill level. I started playing a few MegaWADs and was very enthusiastic at the beginning, but the game became so difficult towards the end that I lost interest and quit. I play to relax, I have enough challenges in real life. I also like simple oldschool maps. If the flow is right, I have fun with a WAD.

The following table lists all WADs in the order in which I have played them and describes whether I have played through the WAD and if not, why.

# Name Doom Port Year Maps Ended Verdict Rating
1 Doom the Way id Did 1 Vanilla 2011 27 ✔ as the name says: It’s like the original and therfore great ****
2 Doom 2 the Way id Did 2 Vanilla 2013 33 ✔ as the name says: It’s like the original and therfore great ****
3 Hell Ground 2 Boom 2009 7 ✔ needs GZDoom or similar, fun ****
4 Brutal Doom 2 GZDoom 2010 ?? no gameplay mod, it’s a must play but in the end not my cup of tea ****
5 Hellbound 2 LR 2013 32 ✔ excellent megawad with replay-value *****
6 SIGIL 1 LR 2019 9 ✔ Must play, made by Romero ****
7 SIGIL 2 1 LR 2023 9 ✔ Must play, made by Romero ****
8 5till L1 Complex 2 LR 2012 1 ✔ one huge map with lots of places to explore ****
9 Pirate Doom 2 GZDoom 2012 18 ✔ Monkey Island meets Doom. Excellent! *****
10 Ashes 2063 2 GZDoom 2021 16? ✗ Need to replay this. I think it is excellent but I wasn’t in the mood for it back then. *****
11 Revolution! 2 Vanilla 2003 32 ✔ ***
12 Crumpets 2 Boom 2015 9 ✗ excessive amount of overpowered monsters *
13 The Ultimate NMD 1 Vanilla 2009 27 ✔ lots of fun. Easy in the beginning, moderate in the end ****
14 Lunatic 2 Boom 2011 5 ✗ excessive amount of overpowered monsters *
15 Valiant 2 MBF/MBF21 2015 32 ✗ excessive amount of overpowered monsters *
16 One Humanity 2 LR 2022 1 ✔ Buy it, it’s for a good cause ***
17 Death in the a$$ of the Universe 1 Vanilla 2003 27 ✔ Starts easy and gets more difficult but nevr unfair. Plenty of ammo. ***
18 RTC-3057 2 ZDoom 2003 7 ✔ A brilliant space themed 3D adventure like Doom II partial conversion *****
19 Suspended in Dusk 2 Vanilla 2005 4 ✔ Four big, complex and beautiful levels ****
20 UAC DEAD 1 Vanilla 1994 1 ✔ very enjoyable ***
21 Serenity 1 Vanilla 1994 8 ✔ relaxing and nice gameplay, quite easy ***
22 CROSSING ACHERON 1 Vanilla 1994 1 ✔ confusing but fun ***
23 ETERNITY 1 Vanilla 1994 8 ✔ Kinda easy, nice flow, lots of fun ****
24 Trinity College 1 Vanilla 1994 1 ✔ Nice textures, quite easy, kinda strange **
25 Return to Phobos 1 Vanilla 1994 8 ✔ Sometimes a jump and run but very fun. Low monster load, plenty of ammo/items ****
26 Slaughter Until Death 1 Vanilla 1994 9 ✔ Lots of moving floors, hurt floors, plenty of ammo/items ***
27 The Evil Unleashed 1 Vanilla 1994 9 ✔ Good enemy/ammo balance, nice level design ****
28 Fava Beans 1 Vanilla 1995 9 ✔ Good enemy/ammo balance, lots of fun to play ****
29 Infinity 1 Vanilla 1995 9 ✔ Good enemy/ammo balance, annoying moving floors, strange ending but nice gameplay otherwise ***
30 Fistful 2 Vanilla 1995 2 ✗ I respect all the work and love that went into this WAD but the Western theme is just not my thing **
31 H2H-Xmas 2 Vanilla 1995 32 ✗ The Christmas theme is not very appealing, not much ammo but powerful enemies from the beginning. Sounds become annoying after a few minutes. *
32 The Final Gathering 2 Vanilla 1995 5 ✔ Disliked it at first, then had loads of fun. Lots of action, lots of ammo/items, interesting levels ***
33 The Artifact for DOOM II 2 Vanilla 1995 3 ✗ Unfair, pain floors, unavoidable hits, fake walls, annoying level design. Made it to map2 and regretted it *
34 Nostromo’s Run 2 Vanilla 1995 1 ✔ Loads of enemies, loads of ammos/items, loads of fun! ****
35 The Enigma Episode v2.0 2 Vanilla 1995 9 ✗ I tried to like it but I failed. It’s a violent puzzle platformer with no game flow. Gave up in map04 **
36 Memento Mori 2 Vanilla 1996 32 ✗ Everyone loves Memento Mori like I did in the beginning. Quit playing in map18. Levels are great but it’s full of traps, overloaded with strong enemies. It just sucked. **
37 Memento Mori 2 2 Vanilla 1996 32 ✗ Didn’t bother playing it after MM1 already sucked. **
38 Dystopia 3 2 Vanilla 1996 11 ✔ Love the level design and the game flow. Challenging but never unfair. Huge replay value ****
39 All Hell is Breaking Loose!!! 2 Vanilla 1996 5 ✗ It’s cheesy and I don’t like custom weapons/enemies. Wasn’t fun at all. *
40 Icarus: Alien Vanguard 2 Vanilla 1996 32 ✔ Lots of puzzles, map24 is horrible (ghost Imps and Shotgun Guys, uses fake walls but in overall an excellent Megawad. Was more fun the second time playing it. ****
41 Polygon Base 2 Vanilla 1996 1 ✔ Very nice WAD, larger map, not linear, you can search for keys in any order. Enough ammo, good enemy placement. ****
42 99 Ways to Die 2 Vanilla 1996 3 ✔ nothing extraordninary but entertaining fun. Not too difficult, not too easy. ***
43 THE TROOPERS’ PLAYGROUND 2 Vanilla 1996 8 ✔ also here: nothing extraordninary but lots of fun. Lots of item, hard to fail. ****
44 A Hidden Mountain Factory 2 Vanilla 1996 1 ✔ A solid and fun map ***
45 Requiem 2 Vanilla 1997 32 ✔ Liked it in the beginning, started to hate it from map14 on. Realized that I played it before and never finished it. So much hate for map23 with unkillable blue uniform solders, unfair traps, stupidly overpowered monsters. IDDQD the last 2 map to make it stop. **
46 Eternal Doom 2 Vanilla 1997 32 ✗ Beautiful textures, great levels but becomes very diffult. Also lots of puzzles, had to watch YT videos a lot to be able to continue. Stopped playing at map014 but will come back to it later as it is a pistol start map. ****
47 STRAIN 1.0 2 Vanilla 1997 32 ✗ Started nice but got annoyingly hard later on. **
48 Mordeth - FEB'97 version 2 Vanilla 1997 6 ✗ stopped playing in map03. Powerful enemies and crappy weapon situation. *
49 The Talosian Incident 2 Vanilla 1997 20 ✗ stopped playing in map06 or so. Confusing, annoying. **
50 Dawn of the dead 1 Vanilla 1997 9 ✔ Fast paced fun, balanced enemies, nice levels ***
51 Hell Revealed 2 Vanilla 1997 32 ✗ It was great fun until map14. Why would you enjoy slaughter maps? Could have been 4 stars. **
52 Hell’s Eventide 2 Vanilla 1997 1 ✔ Lots of fun with this single map. ****
53 Cyberdreams 2 Vanilla 1998 32 ✗ 32 small maps fighting against Cyberdemons. I hate it but I get that others might love it. *
54 Phobos 2 Vanilla 1998 4 ✔ This one is a lot of fun. Enough ammo, fair amount of enemies, nice levels, especially the nuclear plant ****
55 Earth 2 Vanilla 1998 10 ✗ First 2 maps were nice, the rest is just horrible: dark mazes with disabled automap with the goal to annoy the player. Stopped playing in map08. *
56 Venom 2 Vanilla 1998 1 ✔ This one was lots of fun! (map01) ****
57 Tantrum 2 2 Vanilla 1998 1 ✔ Very challenging but fun (map01) ***
58 Dickie10 2 Vanilla 1998 1 ✔ Short, fun, stressful (map10) ***
59 Run Buddy 2 Boom 1998 1 ✔ Three Cyberdemons and over 400 enemies. Normally not my cup of tea but this was very fun (map03) ***
60 Odessa Level 14 2 Vanilla 1998 1 ✗ It could have been great if the radioactive slime pool wasn’t there. Interesting puzzles but unsolvable when you have to cross hurt floors. (map14) **
61 Crestfallen 2 Vanilla 1998 1 ✗ Nope *
62 Batman DOOM 2 Vanilla 1999 32? ✗ I don’t like the style, feels like a fever dream. (TC) *
63 The Darkening 2 Vanilla 1999 11 ✔ Fun wad ***
64 Crusades 1 Vanilla 1999 9 ✗ Some level were nice, others not. **
65 CHORDG 2 Vanilla 1999 1 ✗ One of those maps where they try to be hardcore. (map29) *
66 Jägermörder 2 Boom 1999 1 ✔ Fun map (map01) ***
67 Twilight Warrior 2 ZDoom 1999 10 ✗ Most TCs with their weapon replacements etc. are crappy - like this one (map01 - map10) *
68 Demonfear 2 Vanilla 1999 32 ✔ A Megawad with quite small levels, very balanced difficulty and fast paced action. Really enjoyed it. ****
69 The Darkening Episode 2 2 Vanilla 2000 12 ✔ Awesome WAD! Love the textures, the atmosphere, the crates as additional level design. Not plenty of ammo but also not too rare. The last map was brutal. *****
70 10 Sectors 2 Boom 2000 32 ✗ Stopped playing in map07. Not much ammo and every level is full of overpowered enemies. No joy. *
71 Chord 3 2 LR 2000 1 ✔ Stressful but manageable. I don’t really liked it but I’m proud that I made it through (map27) ***
72 The Classic Episode 1 Vanilla 2000 9 ✔ This is a perfect example of a 5 star full episode WAD. It’s not fancy, it’s just Doom. Well balanced difficulty, enough ammo mot my shotty, Cyberdaemon at the end and not 3 of them in the start room. Doom as it should be. *****
73 Bring Back The 90s! 1 Vanilla 2024 9 ✔ Short but very fun and relaxing. I love the theme, the speed, enemy choice and difficulty. I didn’t like the sound effects so I removed them from the WAD. ****
74 Painful Evil 2 LR 2000 1 ✗ Too extreme for me. (map01) *
75 Atomic Tomb 1 Boom 2000 1 ✔ I would categorize this map as a slaughter map which i normally don’t like but this one is fair and quite fun. (map01) ***
76 The Hell Factory Hub One 2 ZDoom 2000 4 ✗ I have mixed feelings here. I love how innovative it is, adds lasers, CCTV, etc. and it feels like an action adventure. What I didn’t like are those ghost style enemies silently spawning in front of you in narrow areas and that you have to press buttons all the time which then trigger actions but you don’t know where. In the end I was backtracking all the time back and forth looking for changes in the environment or I needed to load my save because of stupid traps (map01-04) ***
77 Containment Area v1.1 2 Boom 2000 1 ✗ 500 something enemies in one map. I don’t play to suffer. (map12) **
78 Sin City 2 ZDoom 2001 1 ✔ This was fun. Good difficulty, nice level layout. Still not sure if I like these ZDoom gimmicks ***
79 DooM Resurrection Episode I 2 ZDoom 2001 5 ✔ Still not so fond of the ZDoom extras but this one was a great WAD with interesting puzzles and fair difficulty. (map01-05) ****
80 The Darkest Hour 2 ZDoom 2001 7 ✗ I won’t rate this because it would be unfair. I think it’s technically excellent but I don’t want to play Star Wars and I won’t go anywhere whout my shotty. -
81 Vrack 2 2 Boom 2001 1 ✔ Over 400 enemies in one map. I normally don’t like these kind of maps but I loved this one so much that I really tried. Had to IDDQD somewhere in the middle and enjoyed the rest of the map until the end. ****
82 Assault on Tei Tenga 2 ZDoom 1999 6 ✔ Really neat idea, nice textures but quite short and cut scene heavy. ***
83 KZDoom 1 2 ZDoom 1999 1 ✔ Absolutely love this one! The sounds, the tech atmosphere, difficult but with enough ammo and well placed health kits. A reason to finally get used to ZDoom. *****
84 KZDoom 2 2 ZDoom 1999 1 ✔ Same as KZDoom 1: The atmosphere and balance between everything is on spot. Enough ammo and health, lots of fun, dense gaming experience. *****
85 KZDoom 3 2 ZDoom 2000 1 ✔ see above *****
86 KZDoom 4 2 ZDoom 2000 1 ✔ Didn’t like this one as much as the other ones. Complete different setting und sometimes quite unfair. ***
87 KZDoom 5 2 ZDoom 2000 1 ✔ This one was just stressful **
88 KZDoom 6 2 ZDoom 2000 1 ✔ Challenging but not unfair. Solid map ***
89 KZDoom 7 2 ZDoom 2001 1 ✔ Enjoyed this a lot. The finale was a bit too much with two Cyberdemons, a mastermind, many Mancubus, some Revenants and a horde Imps. ****
90 2002 A DOOM ODYSSEY (V2) 2 ZDoom 2002 32 ? I’ve already played this WAD in the past. I can’t remember if I liked it but I don’t feel like replaying it right now. -
91 CONGESTION CONTROL 2 Vanilla 2002 1 ✔ No idea how to beat the Spider Mastermind after the Cyberdemon in such a cramped space without enough medikits or ammo. Had to cheat to kill the Mastermind. ***

WADs to play

Here are the next Doom WADs I plan to play:

# Name Doom Port Year Maps Ended Verdict Rating
? Slayer 2 Vanilla 2001 11 ✔✗ - *****
? Null Space 2 Vanilla 2001 1 ✔✗ - (map01) *****
? Equinox 2 LR 2001 13 ✔✗ - *****
? Phobia 2 Doom Legacy 2001 1 ✔✗ - *****
? Alien Vendetta 2 Vanilla 2002 32 ✔✗ - *****
? Caverns of Darkness 2 COD Engine 2002 10 ✔✗ - *****
? Dark7 2 ZDoom 2002 7 ✔✗ - *****
? Dark7: Mission Pack (The Special Edition) 2 ZDoom 2012 7 ✔✗ - *****
? Ni’mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE 2 Doom Legacy 2002 10 ✔✗ - *****
? CH Retro Episode 1 Vanilla 2002 9 ✔✗ - *****
? Ruma 2 LR 2002 1 ✔✗ - *****
? 007: Licence to Spell DooM 1 ZDoom 2002 9 ✔✗ - *****
? Rip it, Tear it, Smash it! 1 Vanilla 2002 18 ✔✗ - *****
? The Gateway Experiments 2 ZDoom 2003 1 ✔✗ - *****
? PHOBOS: ANOMALY REBORN 1 MBF 2003 9 ✔✗ - *****
? Void 2 ZDoom 2003 1 ✔✗ - *****
? Scythe 2 Vanilla 2003 32 ✔✗ - *****
? The Brotherhood of Ruin 2 Boom 2003 11 ✔✗ - *****
? MassMouth 2 2 ZDoom 2003 17 ✔✗ - *****
? Doom Raider:Crypt of the Vile 2 ZDoom 2003 1 ✔✗ - *****
? Helpyourselfish 2 LR 2003 1 ✔✗ - *****

Template for new Entries

# Name Doom Port Year Maps Ended Verdict Rating
? 2 - 2000 32 ✔✗ - *****