THE HALLS BELOW - DEMO

BY KUMA

Author's note: This WAD is my first ever doom mapping project ever. Some maps probably won't be 100% perfect and may have fights that some may consider "unfair". 
There is a reason for this: I wanted to keep each map to be as it was when I finished creating it. I'll fix any fights that seem OVERLY unfun, and change things
that make the maps unwinnable, but I wanted the maps to show my progress as a DOOM mapper. This wad uses only vanilla doom 2 textures, which is both something 
am proud of and also regret choosing. 


Second Note: The fighting style in this wad, to be described consisely, is "cramped". You often don't have loads of movement room, and it's not uncommon to have to
retreat the way you came during a fight. Some particular fights also close the doors behind you - and I fully understand these two things aren't something everyone is
very fond of, but it's just the way I make maps. Due to the wad taking place *underground*, I can't really use sky textures - which makes decorating wide open spaces
quite a bit harder. I might be able to finagle my way into having some skyboxes in the hell levels though.

RECCOMENDED SETTINGS AND SOURCE PORTS:

Note: UV is *hard*, doubly so on pistol starts. If the intro to map 2 hurts too bad, please set it to HMP.
Tested in ZDoom 4.7.1. Any compatability settings other than vanilla doom should work, though keep in mind that infinite height can make some fights harder than intended.
Due to the intended gloomy atmosphere of some maps (namely map 04), and the maps being created in ZDoom, I reccomend using it for its default display/brightness settings.
(The dynamic lights also look DAMN good.)

MUSIC CREDITS
Map 01: Judas priest "Redeemer of souls" midi from some russian website that looked like it was from 1990
Map 02: Necron's Fortress from King's Field 1
Map 03: Battle Theme from Princess Maker 2, a japanese visual novel
Map 04: Negotiations Theme from SMT IV, converted to MIDI by an SMT fanproject

Map Notes:

Map 01: Ashen Wastes Reasearch Station
This map still holds up pretty well upon writing this. A few of the walls don't line up, and I've grown to dislike the cacodemon/baron fight, but I'm still proud of that archvile fight at the end, and I like how the natural terrain turned out.
Did you find the hidden SSG?

Map 02: Nukage Deradiation Facility
Not huge on the fights of this map anymore. The ambushes are somewhat bullshit, and this contains the only fight I nerfed for being unfun. That archvile fight used to be much worse. That said, I love the look of this map, and 
that baron crusher fight still kicks ass. Also, of all the maps' visual stylings I like this one the most.

Map 03: Hellfire Smelting Complex
I like this map a lot. Once I added the new MIDI, the map became MUCH more fun to play. The fights aren't amazing, but also not unfair like map 02's. The caco fight can be a pain though, depending on if you're on zdoom or not. 
Tricking the opening hitscanner horde into blowing themselves to pieces is always fun.

Map 04: UAC Deep Core 06
The first half of this map is pretty much me giving a tyson map a shot. I don't like it. The imp punching fight is a bit RNG for my tastes. That said, I haven't seen any other map that you kill a cyberdemon with a chaingun. (I had to add the rocket
launcher in as to do it with only the chaingun would have needed a reaaaaaaly long bridge. The second half with the slivers of hp is also very fun to me, though it might not be for everyone. The last fight with the horde of zombiemen
with only a chaingun is amazing though to me, and could be made much easier if you manage to save rockets from the cyberdemon for it. If you can do it, you've earned yourself the easy archie kill.