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CH Retro Episode: First Look


General Summary

CH Retro is a 9 level doom wad with a straightforward purpose. As Chris says, "I've tried to make it look and play like Romero's masterpiece, but have also mixed my own style in with it to make it unique." Having taken Chris's textfile advice I played the episode straight thru - on skill 4. Therefore the review is written from that perspective.

The architecture of CH Retro is excellent. Anyone familiar with DOOM e1's pure and clean design will see the same in CH retro. Some areas are direct translations of a certain DOOM e1 area, while others are creative new areas that fit well with the feel.

Layouts in CH retro are probably the best thing of this wad set. One aspect of Romero's design that I've admired is his uncanny ability to keep the whole level well-interconnected. Chris does this almost perfectly and it really helps to keep the atmosphere and replay value up (also greatly lends itself to E1 of course). There are some layouts that seem a bit strew though. For example, in e1m4 there are two yellow key doors. One leads to the exit, while the other goes in a virtual linear circle. It hides a nice secret, but I still didn't feel there was a purpose to the area. The area probably would have been better served as another color keycard or not key blocked at all.

Texturing is solid all around. Again, very reminicient of E1 with a nice mix. A few noticeable exceptions (such as the shawn2 pillar in e1m4 - yuk!).

While CH retro's strengths lie in imitating Romero, the downfalls of this wad set are when Chris tries to 'mix in his own style'. A trademark design element Chris uses it to put these 64x64 or 128x64 computer panels everywhere. Most of the time they just look obsurd contrasted against the large scale architecture. And a lot of the times the placement makes no sense or doesn't fit well with the theme/area of the level.

Gameplay is probably the least promising aspect. The ambushes and monsters mixes are fresh. That's not what hinders CH retro. It's in the fact that Chris fails to be thoughtful of the player sometimes. And when it comes down to it, it effects how fun the wad is and how replayable it can be.

One immediate problem I noticed playing through the episode is the lack of rad suits! I don't think the first one came until e1m5 and there are all but 3 in this wad. Now, if you know anything of DOOM E1 it's that your ass is going to be running through nukage and thats something Chris does not fail to deliver in CH retro. Unfortunately he forgets the rad suits at key points and I'm taking hits for nothing.

I had a problem with health in the larger levels, esp e1m5 and e1m7. In e1m5, I had over 100/100% at the start with an arsenal of weapons and yet I still found myself dying repeatedly. The first two major ambushes are hectic and are guaranteed to deplete your health unless you play chicken. So I had to slow down. E1M7 is an even bigger discrepency. For example e1m7 of RetroEps had 220 monsters as opposed to 150 monsters in DOOM E1's e1m7. Yet RetroEps only had a total of 566 health as opposed to DOOM's e1m7 having 533 health (thanks DMTHA ;). Basically, that means you have to slay an additional 70 monsters with only 33% additional health. Not impossible, but not fun either. Some of these levels are twice as big or hard as regular DOOM levels (which is ok by modern standards) but the health is not enough when facing shooters, etc.


Map Breakdown


E1M1: First Contact

A kind of disappointing start. The level is an obvious rip of e1m1 without many creative strides. Basically it appears Chris took the basic layout and flipped it, and stripped it down. The two secrets don't have much useful purpose. The shotgun secret is rendered practically useless since by then you've already gathered the shotgun and ammo from enemies. The armor secret is creative, but perhaps blue armor was over the top. I guess he was trying to completely imitate everything from the original e1m1. And it would have been nice if this level had more health then 1%'s and 1 stimpack with so many shooters.

E1M2: Computers and Electronics

Again, the obvious map to map influences are there, but in the case of this map Chris begins to take a few more creative strides. The level is good, but there is much better fare later on. I did have a few playflow issues. I can't understand why he didn't allow the lift in main switch/compspan room to be accessable from both sides. That requires some backtracking that slows the action down. Why not connect chainsaw/nukage secret to the start area via a lift? Even Romero kept his secrets well interconnected such as the rocket launcher secret in e1m3 - it stretched around the map to meet at another part. Again, unnecessary backtracking is not fun.

E1M3: Main-Frame

The best from CH retro. The start area is just beautiful. Open and granduer. The whole yellow key area is another well designed part of the map finishing with a nice "lights out" ambush. The layout is well planned and executed. Chris will certaintly have you running your but all over the map just to get to the underwhelming secret map. I've got no problem exploring in this map though, true fun. ;)

E1M4: Command Center

Nice architecture in this one as well, and a pretty good layout minus the split at the yellow key. I've got no problems with side areas that contain secrets but it's quite a bit of an uphill battle just to grab a rocket launcher. You wonder if it's worth it? Some areas here remind me Chris is not thinking to well of the player. He's got 2 barrels strangely placed blocking a door. If you fall into the right side of the nukage near the key your screwed - Chris offers the player no way out - something Romero would have remembered. One of the first memorable ambushes happens in this map - right before the exit (so memorable in fact that I died :). I won't ruin if for ya.

E1M5: Chemical Processing Plant

I've got mixed feelings on this one. Some designed areas are stunning such as the the main room upon entering the base or the southwestern area of the map. Some areas aren't so great, such as the north/north west part of the map. It's a sizeable map, but not confusing although it definately could use more health. After entering the building you get your ass whooped. And the whole north area with the bars can get mighty annoying. Save the tricks and traps bullshit for doom2. Oh, and may I have a radsuit? please? Esp. if your gonna make me try and pick off shooters from a sniper tower surrounded by 50 feet of nukage. ;-)

E1M6: Primary Base

Strange, but I am far less impressed by this map looking back at it now. It's a good map, like e1m2 of retroEps, but it's obvious Chris upped the design notches a few since he created the first map of the episode. The changes to this map were negligable to me. Much better fare in the rest of the episode.

E1M7: Laboratories

This map is the biggest of the episode. I'd say it's almost 2x bigger then any DOOM e1 map. I definately got confused at some points here. The final leg of the map drags on longer then necessary (I'm sorry, but what is the point of the the whole southwestern area of the map? Health can be a bitch. The quest for the blue key is plain annoying. It's switch tag at it's finest. When a map is this big I don't want to be backtracing to find what one switch does, only to find what the switch opens to .... another switch! And now wtf does that switch do, only God knows. Naturally I have to keep hurling myself into nukage without any protection to find out whats going on.

The red key area is one of the best designed areas of the map + the episode. Chris again knows how to take a naturally fun area and make it not fun by providing the player with one rad suit (hope you know what your doing) and not enough health to face the onslaught of shooters + imps. At one point, if you fall off the platform you'd have to do quite a bit of backtracking since there is only one point of entry. Entrance to the red key room is trying in itself, since you need to ride a lift down, hit a switch, ride it back up, and catch the door before it closes.

E1M8: Old Habits...

A fatal flaw prevents me from playing this map in a reasonable manner. In the baron room there are VPO's. Everywhere. Once you see the map and realize the layout it's a great architecture that opens nicely.

A strange thing I noticed in reloading the map from scratch was that there is no rocket launcher in the map! It gets mighty boring fighting 4 barons with a shotgun. Chris even has rocket ammo in the map but no RL! What is he doing, taking design clues from Paul's 2002e1m8? Gah Maybe he's trying to parallel doom exactly, but this is where creative freedom might be in order.

E1M9: Strategical Offensive Array

This one kind of looks like left over ideas from the episode. It's a pretty straight forward map. The blue key area opens up nicely but everything else is pretty generic compared to the rest of the set.

Overall Impressions

Overall, a great episode designed extremely well. Gameplay has it's moments. Definately could benefit from an update, considering it has a showstopping bug in e1m8 as well as other niches. I can imagine that when approaching almost all these maps Chris looked at the real life counterpart, took notes on what distinguished each level and then recreated it in his vision. Chris has definately made it look like Romero's masterpiece and is somewhat on target for making it play like his masterpiece. Good job Chris! IMO far better then Paul's + Kristian's 2002 e1. :)


Download links


  • Link to Doomcenter's frontpage. {lazy link} ;)