Welcome to The Lost Episodes of Dean of Doom, where we explore the Doom community’s deepest reaches. Today’s episode will be dedicated to Road to Hades, a Boom-compatible solo megawad for TNT: Evilution and the mapping debut of Rose Holmes. I downloaded Road to Hades expecting to get a half-hour of mild nostalgia before moving on to something else, but it cast a spell on me. The first half charms you with home brewed homages to TNT, approachable difficulty, and a few clever flourishes, but this is just the rollercoaster’s uphill climb. Road to Hades doesn’t defy expectations, it strips you of the ability to develop them: one-man megawads can sometimes be smothered by a lack of ideas or redundant delivery, but Road to Hades continually reinvents itself, delights in its own creation, and lovingly salutes its influences. As a TNT fan, I am as partial to weird ideas and gimmicks as I am tolerant of their less-than-perfect execution: Road to Hades lacks triple-A sheen, but it breathes, and it seems like it was a lot of fun to make. The vicarious joy I got from it helped get me out of a months-long period of indifference towards Doom, so I decided to write this video as a way of saying thanks. Lost Episodes are geared towards Doom superfans who most likely know about this show already. Also, Lost Episodes are not obliged to Dean of Doom rules, but today we will keep them intact.
Intro music credit: “Guardian Angel Loses Their Will” by msx2plus
LINK TO THE WAD:
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/rth
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/mtpain27
source
Thank you so much, getting this notification made my day 😀 You did a great job of commenting on the maps, I only have 2 things to add:
– You're right about map 29 being made early on (I think when I was also making map 05). Honestly I should've just scrapped the whole map, but I had committed myself to releasing on the 17th June (Final Doom's birthday) so I didn't have the time 🙁
– also you aren't supposed to be able to explore outside at the start of map 15, I just forgot to make one linedef impassable :p
After a long night of doing homework at college, I came home, cracked a delicious coffee stout, and put this video on, which I had been waiting to watch til I had the proper time. I'm not done with the video yet, but I'm loving this WAD, and getting really curious about playing it myself. I have a soft spot for surrealism, so the imagery is selling me, and your always excellent commentary is only reinforcing that feeling. It's about time I get back into Doom again, too.
Thank you, Mt. Pain, for the consistently great content 🤘
Beautiful. Another knockout episode. Thank you.
Welcome back man, you've been missed!
Yeah as someone who has gotten tired of… well, certain gameplay trends a lot of fan wads have overused, er, over the years, I feel you on that "Doom indifference." But I'm so glad you're back! These videos are always a joy to watch thanks to your specific review style 😀
So how do you define "the Doom community’s deepest reaches"? By that you mean mapsets that most people are not familiar with?
Yesss new video from dean of doom, we are so back guys
I tried this and stopped a few maps in assuming it wouldn't be for me as straight homages to the IWADS are rarely my bag – unless a mapper I am already fond of is attached. However, seeing the wildly creative heights this wad climbs to in the middle third and beyond has launched it firmly into must play territory. Thanks for that.
Also nice to have you back. I've been in a bit of a doom rut myself (both playing and mapping) so it's neat to have someone sharing the passion for it.
Sorry for the second comment, but I see Rose beat me to the punch with having a map 24 be nothing but Delinquents, er I mean Pain Elementals.
11:05 also counts as an Italo Doom reference (Racist Police Force)
oh hell yeah!
I honestly thought this was an unreleased Dean of Doom episode (due to the words "The Lost Episodes" in the title). However, I like the concept of this potential spinoff for Dean of Doom. Hope to see more of this 🙂
Road to Hades seems like a solid wad overall, although I do wish it had a more consistent tone; On one hand, you have gloomy and wicked(ish) maps like Deaf, Dumb, and Blind and on the other hand, there's maps like Bags of Bones, where the tone is rather goofy and silly. Other than that, the aesthetics for some of these maps were appealing, especially the second half of the wad. Rose did a good job on creating this wad, additional points for creating the maps alone.
As for your Doom indifference, it's relatable. I tend to find myself distracted with other things that stole Doom's spotlight (and Boomer Shooters in general). Hopefully this, alongside a few other Doom WADs, could help me spark back the joy of Doom i had in the past.
Also, I was wondering if you have any plans for Legacy of Rust in a future Dean of Doom episode, perhaps for Season 4. The expansion itself looks rather exquisite, albeit I haven't touch it yet, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.
The Doom community's "deepest reaches", eh? Don't think we don't know what you did there.
And yeah, not versed on TNT megawads, so this one went totally under the radar.
I been watching your show for over six months now and I enjoy your videos, sometimes I rewatch your older episodes. I don't know what you'll cover next but I'm wondering if I couldn't convince you to check out The Edge of Time, a partial conversion of mine that I've recently finished. Some of the gameplay elements and the fact that it requires GZDoom might be outside your wheelhouse but I think you would enjoy it once you gave it a chance and perhaps play a few maps of it.
More MtPain with a TNT style wads, hell yeah!
I finally sat down and played TNT for the first time a while back, maybe like a year or so ago because I realized I had never finished any of the IWADs and I had a pretty fun time with it, even though I had played newer stuff that is "objectively better." I'm kinda interested in checking out newer TNT inspired wads but I kinda have trouble with the difficulty of newer doom stuff so I've been put off by it a bit lmao.
I love skyboxes that show space/stars. Any megawads that have those gets a plus in my book.
Have you ever looked at DBzone?
That shock of dopamine every time I get a notification about a new Dean of Doom episode, very dope.
TnT nostalgia is a double win, too.
I am thankful for your continued willingness to make Dean of Doom Episodes for years and putting them out there with great care.
Welcome Back Dean! Hope you’re doing well
Hoping we get a "Legacy of Rust" video, sometime.
A new video from you is an excellent birthday gift
The return of the Dean!! Excellent! Take it at your own pace, but it's always nice to see you back!
Definitely deep reaches as i never seen this….thanks
Always the cunning linguist with the in-depth honesty of map-building creativity. I have missed your content 😊
Great to see you back!
It's a shame you won't keep the grading in these videos. I've got a whole Excel sheet where I compare your overall difficulty to mine, and others where I rank individual levels from separate wads. Your difficulty rating was a great guide for me, who started playing custom wads just something over a year ago, as for which wads to begin with, and which to leave for later. For the sake of my sanity, I would be glad, if the overall difficulty grade is gone, if you would at least compare the wad to something that was on the show already (which oftentimes happens). Thank you for your videos.
I watched too many of these and now Im addicted to doom wads
Map 23 music is ripped straight out of Final Fantasy VI final boss fight.