DBP52: Havoc in Creation

 

DBP52: Havoc in Creation | DBP_52.WAD

Doomer Boards

Say what you will about the Doomer Boards, but you can’t deny their wad-making skills. They churn out a new Doom wad on a regular basis, often with pretty unique or underutilized themes. 2022 proved to be another banger year for them; leaving aside DBP48, they gave the community such underrated greats as Mausoleum Nefarium, Emerald City, and Dreamcatcher Apparatus. It’s really a surprise that even the fifty-second DBP, Havoc in Creation, didn’t make it to the Cacowards that year — because honestly, it deserved one.

While the Doomer Boards Projects often relies on well-worn themes, they’ve developed a reputation for giving old themes a fresh spin. Making use of palette hacks for a different atmosphere can go a long way, and Havoc in Creation makes excellent use of one that throws the game into deep reds and cyans. While the textures are yet another GothicDM-derived set, they blend well with the new palette, giving the game a dark, moody, even apocalyptic feel. This jibes perfectly with the wad’s plot, told through runes that you must translate (composed through clever use of texture offsets and the standard Doom font.) The basic idea is that you are in what’s left of a once-verdant kingdom that was overtaken by demons, and the runes are the last messages of the survivors.

(Disclaimer: I played through this using the excellent Walpurgis, playing as the Druid with Dimensional Instability mode turned off and using the Merciless Monsters mod which replaces the vanilla monsters with tougher, more fantasy-themed variants, as well as Flashlight++ 9.1 with the Lamp preset. I can attest that Havoc in Creation thematically fits extremely well with Walpurgis, though I caution that using it in conjunction with Merciless Monsters broke an important effect towards the end of the game. Nothing gamebreaking, but it will definitely alter your experience. I did watch a vanilla playthrough on Youtube to get a better sense of how the wad plays on its own.)

Havoc is a fantastic mapset. DBP regulars Jon “40oz” Vail, BiZ, and matador are the driving forces behind the set’s quality, but we also get some excellent work from Thelokk (credited here as Saltator), CittyKat112, E.M., shibainumaster, and sonny666 (who did my favorite map in Morbid Autumn.) While most DBPs have one or two maps that are below the standard for the rest, Havoc in Creation maintains a solid, consistent quality and aesthetic throughout. MAP10, “Crossing Worlds,” is an especially impressive map that evokes nothing so much as the beautiful voids and aggressive gameplay of Sunlust, and the “Havoc” trilogy that tell the game’s stories, while typically leaning more towards atmospherics, are beautifully-crafted interludes. Even the most straightforward, simple-looking maps, “Assault on Demon Fortress” and “Calefactor,” are still attractive and a solid play.

You should absolutely play Havoc in Creation. It’s one of the best-looking wads from a year full of great-looking wads, plays great, and blends creative ideas with tried-and-true tricks and traps for one of the Doomer Boards’ most solid mapsets.

 

get it on /idgames

 

 

MAP01: Breaking Point

Jon "40oz" Vail

Yet another solid 40oz opener, it introduces you to the theme right away. It's mostly imps you'll be dealing with as you try to work your way to the yellow skull key in plain sight, but once you grab it, the nearby rock wall collapses and a mess of baddies including revenants come to deal with you for the map's finale fight. Finding the secrets was pretty fun.

MAP02: Havoc I

BiZ, 40oz and matador

A short intermission map of sorts, very light on combat. The core of the map is built around a jumping puzzle, with the ultimate goal being to reach the blue skull key, which in this map acts as a device to allow you to read the mysterious foreign script that tell the story of the mapset. It's a gorgeous map that makes full use of the wad's new color palette, and the little campsite out front is a nice touch.

MAP03: Infernobox

Saltator

A pretty small map with just three rooms, but they all present their own challenges, from the revenants pouring into the intro room once you kick things off to the immediate next room being full of nasties, to the biggest, open air area playing host to more revenants and then a second wave of bullshit once you've opened the exit. That BFG off in the distance is tantalizing, but you can't get to it...

MAP04: Assault on Demon Fortress

CittyKat112

A very linear map that's mostly a series of setpiece fights. It's nice-looking, but there isn't really a whole lot in the way of backtracking, with combat being the primary focus. In terms of vanilla play it can be a rough ride especially on pistol start, but it's eminently doable as long as you're careful. Honestly, while combat puzzles are fun I would have preferred a bit more non-linearity.

MAP05: Misery Ridge

40oz

A pretty straightforward combat map that aesthetically reminds me of "Inferno of Blood" from No Rest for the Living. Most of it is a small to medium-sized open space, but be prepared for a nasty ambush in the first cavern you enter. The yellow key triggers a pretty big rush of mostly imps, but I wouldn't consider that a setpiece fight. That designation goes to the final showdown in a red-brick temple you teleport to, but you're given ample room to maneuver. Fun map.

MAP06: Havoc II

BiZ and 40oz

Another intermission map with a fairly low monster count, "Havoc II" involves another puzzle setpiece where you're jumping around the ruins of a castle and pressing switches as you try to find your way into another study, where the red key will translate the runes by the exit for you. It's another showcase for the wad's aesthetic, an atmospheric, quiet moment in what's otherwise a relatively action-packed episode.

MAP07: Inferno Dance

BearInThaWoods

Despite the hellish environs, lava has rarely been much of a threat so far in this episode. Welcome to "Inferno Dance," an action-packed map with lots of lava to dance over. The opening area has you running on narrow pathways as lost souls and imps harass you, but you're not done with the balancing act yet as a major part of the map has you running over a grid of small columns towering over lava. Lots of combat, including some big crowds towards the end. Fun map.

MAP08: Apophis

E.M.

Hot on the heels of "Inferno Dance" is another lava-centric map, though this one is more compact than the previous map, taking place in a single open space with a bunch of structures surrounding a central pagoda. Make use of the radsuits because you're gonna be running around a lot killing the several dozen enemies all raining shit on you, with the most annoying ones being the revenants hanging out on the outer rock walls. The red key trap by comparison is pretty forgiving. I like that when you throw the switch near the exit button it raises a bunch of platforms for you to explore the map with, it's a nice touch.

MAP09: Calefactor

shibainumaster

The heat gets turned up in this map set around a lava river. Lots of fire coming at you from across the way, shibainumaster focusing mostly on leaving the player exposed and forced to carve out a safe zone from which to tackle the distant artillery. About halfway through you head into a large cavern, and it's a different kind of exposure in that you drop into a dark chamber that's full of enemy, with lots of corners and pillars for them to filter around, making it hard to do crowd control. Fun, tough level with a few surprises.

MAP10: Crossing Worlds

40oz and sonny666

I'm a fan of sonny666 since I played "Norwich Lane" in Morbid Autumn, and he and 40oz have crafted a fantastic eldritch adventure. You start off going through an intimidating "council room" of sorts with archies looking down at you before teleporting to a sort of nexus that leads to five different combat zones, each one having its own setup. Finish them all and you get to deal with a big nasty back in the nexus, and that's on top of having to clear out more and more of the council and their goons every time you swing through their chamber. It's a really great setup with a fantastic look.

MAP11: Havoc III

BiZ

BiZ presents us with a rather compelling finale. Now, full confession, I had somewhat differing results than a vanilla player would -- something about Walpurgis and Merciless Monsters combined had a way of breaking the effect of hordes of corpses teleporting in (and I'm not sure the arch-vile replacements actually resurrect anything anyway.) It makes for a very different kind of map where instead of dealing with a bunch of archies resurrecting all the monsters laying around, you face off against the pathetic last vestiges of whatever horrible force overwhelmed this once-verdant kingdom in their cavernous central library. Where the map really stands out, though, is the conclusion of the story the wad is trying to tell, culminating in a choice you have to make. It's really worth seeing for yourself.

MAP12: Havoc in Creation

40oz

It's time to put an end to this. Whiff out the candle and the evil is destroyed, leaving you to make your exit through an eerie cavern to the mournful tune of "R7" from Shin Megami Tensei IV, with walls collapsing to reveal the team members' names. Cool credits map.

 

 

 

 

 

-june<3

And as the screams subside
I slowly raise my head
To watch the final ruin
And see my kingdom's end

The Doomer Boards Projects

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