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.

#NameDoomPortYearMapsEndedVerdictRating
1Doom the Way id Did1Vanilla201127as the name says: It’s like the original and therfore great****
2Doom 2 the Way id Did2Vanilla201333as the name says: It’s like the original and therfore great****
3Hell Ground2Boom20097needs GZDoom or similar, fun****
4Brutal Doom2GZDoom2010??nogameplay mod, it’s a must play but in the end not my cup of tea****
5Hellbound2LR201332excellent megawad with replay-value*****
6SIGIL1LR20199Must play, made by Romero****
7SIGIL 21LR20239Must play, made by Romero****
85till L1 Complex2LR20121one huge map with lots of places to explore****
9Pirate Doom2GZDoom201218Monkey Island meets Doom. Excellent!*****
10Ashes 20632GZDoom202116?Need to replay this. I think it is excellent but I wasn’t in the mood for it back then.*****
11Revolution!2Vanilla200332***
12Crumpets2Boom20159excessive amount of overpowered monsters*
13The Ultimate NMD1Vanilla200927lots of fun. Easy in the beginning, moderate in the end****
14Lunatic2Boom20115excessive amount of overpowered monsters*
15Valiant2MBF/MBF21201532excessive amount of overpowered monsters*
16One Humanity2LR20221Buy it, it’s for a good cause***
17Death in the a$$ of the Universe1Vanilla200327Starts easy and gets more difficult but nevr unfair. Plenty of ammo.***
18RTC-30572ZDoom20037A brilliant space themed 3D adventure like Doom II partial conversion*****
19Suspended in Dusk2Vanilla20054Four big, complex and beautiful levels****
20UAC DEAD1Vanilla19941very enjoyable***
21Serenity1Vanilla19948relaxing and nice gameplay, quite easy***
22CROSSING ACHERON1Vanilla19941confusing but fun***
23ETERNITY1Vanilla19948Kinda easy, nice flow, lots of fun****
24Trinity College1Vanilla19941Nice textures, quite easy, kinda strange**
25Return to Phobos1Vanilla19948Sometimes a jump and run but very fun. Low monster load, plenty of ammo/items****
26Slaughter Until Death1Vanilla19949Lots of moving floors, hurt floors, plenty of ammo/items***
27The Evil Unleashed1Vanilla19949Good enemy/ammo balance, nice level design****
28Fava Beans1Vanilla19959Good enemy/ammo balance, lots of fun to play****
29Infinity1Vanilla19959Good enemy/ammo balance, annoying moving floors, strange ending but nice gameplay otherwise***
30Fistful2Vanilla19952I respect all the work and love that went into this WAD but the Western theme is just not my thing**
31H2H-Xmas2Vanilla199532The Christmas theme is not very appealing, not much ammo but powerful enemies from the beginning. Sounds become annoying after a few minutes.*
32The Final Gathering2Vanilla19955Disliked it at first, then had loads of fun. Lots of action, lots of ammo/items, interesting levels***
33The Artifact for DOOM II2Vanilla19953Unfair, pain floors, unavoidable hits, fake walls, annoying level design. Made it to map2 and regretted it*
34Nostromo’s Run2Vanilla19951Loads of enemies, loads of ammos/items, loads of fun!****
35The Enigma Episode v2.02Vanilla19959I tried to like it but I failed. It’s a violent puzzle platformer with no game flow. Gave up in map04**
36Memento Mori2Vanilla199632Everyone 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.**
37Memento Mori 22Vanilla199632Didn’t bother playing it after MM1 already sucked.**
38Dystopia 32Vanilla199611Love the level design and the game flow. Challenging but never unfair. Huge replay value****
39All Hell is Breaking Loose!!!2Vanilla19965It’s cheesy and I don’t like custom weapons/enemies. Wasn’t fun at all.*
40Icarus: Alien Vanguard2Vanilla199632Lots 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.****
41Polygon Base2Vanilla19961Very nice WAD, larger map, not linear, you can search for keys in any order. Enough ammo, good enemy placement.****
4299 Ways to Die2Vanilla19963nothing extraordninary but entertaining fun. Not too difficult, not too easy.***
43THE TROOPERS’ PLAYGROUND2Vanilla19968also here: nothing extraordninary but lots of fun. Lots of item, hard to fail.****
44A Hidden Mountain Factory2Vanilla19961A solid and fun map***
45Requiem2Vanilla199732Liked 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.**
46Eternal Doom2Vanilla199732Beautiful 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.****
47STRAIN 1.02Vanilla199732Started nice but got annoyingly hard later on.**
48Mordeth - FEB'97 version2Vanilla19976stopped playing in map03. Powerful enemies and crappy weapon situation.*
49The Talosian Incident2Vanilla199720stopped playing in map06 or so. Confusing, annoying.**
50Dawn of the dead1Vanilla19979Fast paced fun, balanced enemies, nice levels***
51Hell Revealed2Vanilla199732It was great fun until map14. Why would you enjoy slaughter maps? Could have been 4 stars.**
52Hell’s Eventide2Vanilla19971Lots of fun with this single map.****
53Cyberdreams2Vanilla19983232 small maps fighting against Cyberdemons. I hate it but I get that others might love it.*
54Phobos2Vanilla19984This one is a lot of fun. Enough ammo, fair amount of enemies, nice levels, especially the nuclear plant****
55Earth2Vanilla199810First 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.*
56Venom2Vanilla19981This one was lots of fun! (map01)****
57Tantrum 22Vanilla19981Very challenging but fun (map01)***
58Dickie102Vanilla19981Short, fun, stressful (map10)***
59Run Buddy2Boom19981Three Cyberdemons and over 400 enemies. Normally not my cup of tea but this was very fun (map03)***
60Odessa Level 142Vanilla19981It could have been great if the radioactive slime pool wasn’t there. Interesting puzzles but unsolvable when you have to cross hurt floors. (map14)**
61Crestfallen2Vanilla19981Nope*
62Batman DOOM2Vanilla199932?I don’t like the style, feels like a fever dream. (TC)*
63The Darkening2Vanilla199911Fun wad***
64Crusades1Vanilla19999Some level were nice, others not.**
65CHORDG2Vanilla19991One of those maps where they try to be hardcore. (map29)*
66Jägermörder2Boom19991Fun map (map01)***
67Twilight Warrior2ZDoom199910Most TCs with their weapon replacements etc. are crappy - like this one (map01 - map10)*
68Demonfear2Vanilla199932A Megawad with quite small levels, very balanced difficulty and fast paced action. Really enjoyed it.****
69The Darkening Episode 22Vanilla200012Awesome 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.*****
7010 Sectors2Boom200032Stopped playing in map07. Not much ammo and every level is full of overpowered enemies. No joy.*
71Chord 32LR20001Stressful but manageable. I don’t really liked it but I’m proud that I made it through (map27)***
72The Classic Episode1Vanilla20009This 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.*****
73Bring Back The 90s!1Vanilla20249Short 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.****
74Painful Evil2LR20001Too extreme for me. (map01)*
75Atomic Tomb1Boom20001I would categorize this map as a slaughter map which i normally don’t like but this one is fair and quite fun. (map01)***
76The Hell Factory Hub One2ZDoom20004I 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)***
77Containment Area v1.12Boom20001500 something enemies in one map. I don’t play to suffer. (map12)**
78Sin City2ZDoom20011This was fun. Good difficulty, nice level layout. Still not sure if I like these ZDoom gimmicks***
79DooM Resurrection Episode I2ZDoom20015Still not so fond of the ZDoom extras but this one was a great WAD with interesting puzzles and fair difficulty. (map01-05)****
80The Darkest Hour2ZDoom20017I 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.-
81Vrack 22Boom20011Over 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.****
82Assault on Tei Tenga2ZDoom19996Really neat idea, nice textures but quite short and cut scene heavy.***
83KZDoom 12ZDoom19991Absolutely 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.*****
84KZDoom 22ZDoom19991Same as KZDoom 1: The atmosphere and balance between everything is on spot. Enough ammo and health, lots of fun, dense gaming experience.*****
85KZDoom 32ZDoom20001see above*****
86KZDoom 42ZDoom20001Didn’t like this one as much as the other ones. Complete different setting und sometimes quite unfair.***
87KZDoom 52ZDoom20001This one was just stressful**
88KZDoom 62ZDoom20001Challenging but not unfair. Solid map***
89KZDoom 72ZDoom20011Enjoyed this a lot. The finale was a bit too much with two Cyberdemons, a mastermind, many Mancubus, some Revenants and a horde Imps.****
902002 A DOOM ODYSSEY (V2)2ZDoom200232?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.-
91CONGESTION CONTROL2Vanilla20021No 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.***
92Dark72ZDoom20027Stopped playing in map5. I like the setting and everything but I don’t want to fight igroupds of arch-viles, revenants and pain elementals in every new room**
93Dark7: Mission Pack (The Special Edition)2ZDoom20127Not even started playing as I had my problems with the base WAD-

WADs to play

Here are the next Doom WADs I plan to play:

#NameDoomPortYearMapsEndedVerdictRating
?Slayer2Vanilla200111✔✗-*****
?Null Space2Vanilla20011✔✗- (map01)*****
?Equinox2LR200113✔✗-*****
?Phobia2Doom Legacy20011✔✗-*****
?Alien Vendetta2Vanilla200232✔✗-*****
?Caverns of Darkness2COD Engine200210✔✗-*****
?Ni’mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE2Doom Legacy200210✔✗-*****
?CH Retro Episode1Vanilla20029✔✗-*****
?Ruma2LR20021✔✗-*****
?007: Licence to Spell DooM1ZDoom20029✔✗-*****
?Rip it, Tear it, Smash it!1Vanilla200218✔✗-*****
?The Gateway Experiments2ZDoom20031✔✗-*****
?PHOBOS: ANOMALY REBORN1MBF20039✔✗-*****
?Void2ZDoom20031✔✗-*****
?Scythe2Vanilla200332✔✗-*****
?The Brotherhood of Ruin2Boom200311✔✗-*****
?MassMouth 22ZDoom200317✔✗-*****
?Doom Raider:Crypt of the Vile2ZDoom20031✔✗-*****
?Helpyourselfish2LR20031✔✗-*****

Template for new Entries

#NameDoomPortYearMapsEndedVerdictRating
?2-200032✔✗-*****