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m39 · 2 years

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Doom WADs’ Roulette (2002): Nimrod

And so, we reached the last partial/total conversion on the Doomworld’s top 10 WADs from 2002.

And honestly, I wish it was a better send-off to these.

#5: Ni'mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE

Main author(s): Unholy Software

Release date: July 23rd, 2002 (original release)/September 11th, 2005(GZDoom update version, database)

Version(s) played: GZDoom update

Required port compatibility: Doom Legacy/GZDoom

Levels: 10

Okay, I know I sound kind of pessimistic, but my first impressions with Nimrod were, let’s say, not really good. Despite seeing many people praising this WAD, I’ve found many problems that my first playthrough made me feel like I don’t want to touch it ever again. But I’ll elaborate on that later.

So let’s see who made this WAD, shall we (don’t send any threats to these folks, people!)?

We have Kristian Käll, who created 2001’s Phobia (later turned into Despair) and was leading the project behind Nimrod.

We have Paul Corfiatis, who was the main contributor behind 2002 A Doom Odyssey (most of the levels and the soundtrack) and was one of the composers for this WAD.

We have Sam Woodman, the author of the (in)famous Alien Vendetta map, Demonic Hordes, who also made two tracks for this WAD.

And finally, we have James Haley, the man behind Eternity Engine, who helped with the FraggleScript for Nimrod.

There are still other people who contributed to the creation of this WAD. Check the nimrod_team text file, or the Doom Wiki page to get the full list.

As for the story, you play as the titular Nimrod, a UAC soldier that was turned into a cyborg, 30 years after the events of Doom II. You are playing poker with some buddies in an abandoned storage facility when all of the sudden, shit turns into the typical Doom WAD plot AKA you being the last survivor cleaning up UAC’s mess.

And as you progress through the WAD, you find out that this mess is happening due to the original teleporters. Not because they are working but because they might cause more shitshow for humanity. Now stored in a place/planet called ExDeus, you have to go there to blow up these junks to make sure nothing bad will happen with these being used.

What I like about this plot is that it’s not invasive. It doesn’t force you to stop to read some stuff about it as much as some of the other WADs that used this technic in the past. There is even a cutscene in the second map where you talk to another person and he gives you a gun.

What I didn’t notice during my first playthrough, is that in the second half, your commander can’t communicate with you, so he leaves messages inside of the GZDoom’s console command (and I wish that it was written how to use this mechanic in the textfile rather than thinking that I must press other keys to read the messages).

Let’s continue out with an even more positive note. This WAD looks very good. While it focuses almost entirely on the style of the oppressive, industrial-like factories/tech bases, sometimes its architecture looks incredible. Which says something since, as I said earlier, you start off in an abandoned storage facility.

Almost all of your weapons and most of the enemies got changed sprites. It’s mostly digitalized 3D models and they look fine. I don’t think I have any problems with them. The rest of the sprite work is also good.

What I don’t like, however, is that the maps are sometimes too dark. You will be walking around it until you end up in the room/area where you can barely see anything. God help the poor bastards who play this WAD and suddenly a little bit of natural light comes at their monitors and makes them blind as a bat.

Changing the subject into something more positive: the music. It’s also good. If some of you may notice that it seems to repeat itself, that’s because it has a leitmotif. And as for my favorite track, it’s called Angry Riots, Troopers Yell from MAP07 (despite the fact that I muted the music on my first playthrough ‘cause this map gave me a White Fever).

The sound effects were fine, I guess? I’ve heard some of these from Doom 64 (like the Dark 7 Duology) and these are always at least good. The rest of the sound effects were... well I wouldn’t call them bad but I feel like it all needed some additional work on them. The worst was the one where it resembled something smashing against the floor or ceiling and it sounds horribly bit-crushed, sounds too loud in some places, and is just downright terrible. Didn’t help that I had to listen to this one many times during my journey through Nimrod.

Believe it or not, there is an actual voice acting in this WAD (plus some additional stuff from the voice synthesizer). Mostly prominent in the first four levels. And the quality is mixed in my opinion. Nimrod and Havoc sound pretty fine, but the commander sounds like garbage. Couldn’t they just make his voice just a little bit bit-crushed instead of making him sound like a diet, HECU Marine?

Also, the status bar looks somewhat unreadable. I keep getting numbers wrong.

That’s all about the visual stuff from me. But what about the gameplay though? How does it feel to play Nimrod without focusing on combat and monsters?

Well, it’s more complex than the typical Doom stuff. It’s not just going from one place to another while looking for keys. You are given a task to do on most of the maps like blowing up all of the old teleporters in The Alpha Outpost, charging one of the batteries in The Twice Risen Starport, or overloading one of the machines in The Underground Sewer Facility.

This WAD is split into three locations. You start out on Phobos (where you spend most of the time here), then crash onto ExDeus, and finally end up near the nuclear missiles facility on Mars.

Sometimes you have to pick up an item to place it somewhere to go further, like the previously mentioned batteries and explosives. One of these items will actually lead you to the secret area if you know where to look (it’s in Crate Factory).

Also, you have to remember this thing: Jumping is important! It is required to go further to get an item or a key or get into a switch or something else.

There is one funny thing related to the old teleporters mentioned earlier, where you have to destroy the last one by using a crane to drop from a high altitude. It’s really funny.

But you know what’s not funny? How really complicated most of the maps are. To the point that during your first playthrough you might be thinking that you are playing the spiritual successor to Eternal Doom and/or Herian 2. And that you start cheating because you are sick of these.

Let’s start with the level geometry. Many of these levels feel like some kind of double-jointed Frankenstein’s monster of a map. Even if you know where you are supposed to go and what to do next, you will still get lost due to how levels’ gigantic amount of passages lead to the same room/rooms.

Stuff connected with items is more tolerable but not as much. I already mentioned the dark rooms where you can barely see anything, and I’m mentioning it again because it is also related to the items other than keys/parts of the human body. It doesn’t help that some of these items tend to blend with the environment of the room that is placed. You might even think they are part of a map itself, thinking that they are just an added detail because it looks funny but nope. They are pickable and required.

And let me tell you something. The Alpha Outpost might have my favorite music track in this WAD but it might also be the most overly complicated level in Nimrod. I’ve already mentioned most of the stuff earlier that adds to my dislike for this level but let me tell you about the yellow key. It’s in a watch tower, behind the yellow door. How do you get it then without thinking: Why did the author put the key there in the first place? You break the window near the door to get there... Yeah, something that might never come to your head when first time playing if you played already many WADs that don’t require something like that unless you watch/read a walkthrough on the internet.

...

You know, I should have gone apeshit at this point, but by now I think I’m starting to have a burnout from playing Doom WADs. I had to play one level per hour (or something close to that timeframe) while screenshotting keys’/secrets’ locations to not go insane.

Let’s change the subject. How hard is Nimrod? Well, it’s somewhere in between. Rather average. If you know where the items are along with the secrets, I don’t really think you will have problems with this WAD.

But it still has some bullshit sprinkled around, like fighting three Arachnotrons on the first map, the big groups of Hoovies in later levels (and placed in a dickish way), and new high-tier monsters that are in dozens in some of the maps.

And speaking of the new enemies, there are a few of these:

Instead of Zombiemen, you are now fighting Undead Guards, who will fire at you either like Zombiemen or SS-men. Other hitscanners are here but only Hoovies look different (along with Imps).

Pinkies are now bigger and black and they, like, propel fastly towards their target with their mouths. Also, they are using the name that will be used in the future by the infamous Sequel Trilogy hater: Longman of YouTube.

We have Badasses, green-colored cyborgs who shoot plasma at you, at a faster rate than spiders, and are worse than the hitscanners (same pain state chance as Barons I believe). I like to call them The Bruh Men since when they are awakened they say something that sounds like Bruh.

There is the red variant of these in The Underground Sewer Facility that you have to kill to rip his eye out to finish the level.

You won’t find any barons in this WAD. Instead, there are Archdemons, AKA Let’s make Arch-vile but without any indication that he’s attacking you and with a smaller timeframe to hide from his attack. They are bullshit.

Also, we have BAM, a huge cyborg that either shoots two Hellraiser’s blasts or hitscans your ass. He’s also bullshit.

So yeah, half of the new roster is basically Let’s make a new monster out of the old monster but more unfair to fight.

Do you at least have a good arsenal to fight them? Well, it’s hard to actually tell. Shotgun and Chaingun (now titled Panzer Bullet Chaingun) fire at a faster rate but that’s basically it for all of the weapons. The only exception is the previously mentioned Hellraiser, which kind of works like some kind of mini-nuke that obliterates every monster (including you) that is not Spider Mastermind or BAM. And in their case you need much more blasts than BFG to put them down, making this weapon obsolete on them (at least in terms of the Huge B8tch).

Even though the GZDoom version is playable and I didn’t encounter any bugs for almost all of the WAD, it can't be beaten without noclipping due to the one blue door in Shipping/Receiving/Spaceport.

For some reason, it requires a specific type of key to be open (keycard) but there is a problem: THERE IS NO SUCH A THING AS BLUE KEYCARD IN THIS WAD! Every human body part that you will find is slotted as Blue Skull. I even tried to summon the keycard myself and all I got was just some bullets. So basically, if you want to complete this level without cheating, then you are screwed. Other doors in this map don’t act like that (except the one that requires all three colors) so this piece of junk feels like an omitted game-breaking bug.

...

sigh

That was Nimrod, people. I had no expectations for this WAD, and I still ended up with mixed feelings about it. I can definitely see that it has a heart due to all of these 3D models created and this WAD’s plot trying to give you a reason why are you doing these things. The problem, however, is that it’s mostly unnecessarily complicated, sometimes cheap in difficulty, and downright unbeatable due to the one door in MAP06 if you want to play the entire WAD in one go.

Then again, that’s probably what happens when you try to create a Singleplayer WAD experience when started as a Deathmatch package idea.

And I’m glad I’m done with this WAD since I’ve played three WADs in a row (not counting the first Dark 7) that were either partial or total conversion.

Good news though, the next WAD on the list is not like the ones from the near past. The bad news is that it’s a Doom I WAD made by a guy who probably made the least enjoyable maps in 2002 A Doom Odyssey.

...

You know what they say: You win some. You lose some.

See you guys next time.

#doom #Doom WAD #review #doom mod #Doom 2 #2002 #doom 2002 #Ni'mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE #nimrod #doom nimrod #Doom WADs’ Roulette

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