Doom WADs’ Roulette (2002): Alien Vendetta
#1: Alien Vendetta
Main author(s): Various (Idea started by Anders Johnsen)
Release date: December 24th, 2001 (original release)/December 24th, 2002
Version(s) played: Second version/Compet-n edition
Required port compatibility: Vanilla (for almost every map)
Levels: 32 (standard 30 + 2)
Welp... I guess we will have to start off from the beginning. And we are starting with an absolute classic according to many people (that I played before because Dean of Doom happened).
Now, look, if you heard about Alien Vendetta being hard and thought This guy must be exaggerating. It can’t be that hard. then let me tell you something: You will be surprised. This WAD is really hard in some moments. But I’ll elaborate on that statement later.
Because hey, what’s the deal with this WAD anyway? I mean, it only was named the most influential PWAD of all time in 2019, the last great classical megaWAD (by 2003 standards), and one of its maps earned first place in the Top 100 Most Memorable Maps in 2018.
...
Okay, there might be a few reasons why this MegaWAD is so important for the Doom community, but with all of this influence and legacy lies a question: Is Alien Vendetta actually good?
Time to find out.
But before we will jump into this MegaWAD, here is a little bit of history about it:
Originally titled Alien Vindicta, the work for the WAD began in 1996 as a solo project created by mentioned higher Anders Johnsen. Like in the present day, it was a standard, 32-maps big MegaWAD but with the story involving Icon of Sin wanting revenge after its defeat in the original Doom II, with some stuff involving demons being actually aliens or something.
Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), for the creator of Vindicta, it wasn’t good enough, and, in the way of Valve, decided to make the WAD all over again in 1998, changing its original name to what we have today in 1999, and turning it from a one-man made WAD to a team project (including help from Adam Windsor (Demonfear series, Requiem), Anthony Soto (The Classic Episode, The Darkening Episode 2), and Lee Szymanski (third place in 10 Sectors competition)). It was originally released on Christmas Eve 2001 and exactly a year later the second version of this WAD was released under the title Compet-n edition, improving most of the maps, removing some bugs (but not all) alongside replacing a map titled Valley of Echoes, because its creator thought it was the worst and the ugliest map in this MegaWAD.
There isn’t really anything to say about the story in this WAD. Supposedly there is more in the AV.EXE file but I couldn’t open it. All I have is that the intermission texts are changed, usually talking about different places Doomguy ends up in the near future and such.
Now, with all of the more non-gameplay-related stuff out of the way, let’s finally start talking properly about Alien Vendetta.
Let’s not bullshit around folks. Alien Vendetta looks amazing. If someone showed you this WAD, you would’ve thought that it requires a source port to be played without any problems. But no. This WAD is pure, bloody Vanilla. It can be played without any of these. And the only map that requires being played in a source port to actually save due to its size has another version in the second WAD file titled AVMOVFIX where its mountain section is removed.
I believe that these maps have at least one thing to gasp about their appearance. City in the distance and the cargo ship in Cargo Depot, the entirety of Toxic Touch that somehow made sewers look interesting, and both red and green marble castles alongside the blue caves (probably made out of ice) in Stench of Evil are some of the bigger examples I can think of right now.
My favorite looking map (probably like with many other people) is Misri Halek, partially because it is an Egyptian map (and I’m sucker for those), and partially because it manages to combine three styles (insides of the pyramid, red caves filled with lava, and the mountain region with a nearby lava river) and somehow make it work. Honestly the less I will talk about this map the better, or it will ruin the surprise and the shock value.
The music is also greatly matched with the maps. I’m saying matched, because almost all of the music tracks are either from the original Doom Engine games or are MIDIfied versions of music tracks from other games/media. This doesn’t mean these tracks sound bad, very far from it. They sound really good.
In terms of the tracks not related to the Doom Engine games, my favorite ones are from maps Seclusion, Beast Island (from which the track sounds like something out of B.P.R.D’s WAD), Clandestine Complex, and Fire Walk With Me. I’m not counting Rise of the Triad soundtrack because it would decimate the other tracks.
As for the only original track, Fight the Logic If You Can, well, it basically makes an already fantastic map even better. That one is my all-time favorite from this MegaWAD.
As for the how do feel when playing “Alien Vendetta” vibes in terms of gameplay, it wasn’t hard to understand the maps most of the time, even though some of them tend to be really big. There were a couple of instances where I was stuck for a few minutes the first time playing of course (hell, even when I was playing these maps again I got stuck in some moments).
The map I enjoyed playing the least was Nemesis, due to its dark and confusing caves (especially the ones where the blue key is). The fortress part was fine.
As for the other interesting stuff, Killer Colours has a very interesting concept where you go through locations colored in Blue, Green, and Red respectively, while also fighting monsters with weapons that are both connected to each of the three colors (most of the time).
Overwhelming Odds and Lake Poison make you find three keys before going further, where in the former’s case you exit the level, and in the latter’s you end in a big arena with a shit-ton of monsters to fight.
Fire Walk With Me has one section at the beginning where you have to through a very thin path before moving normally. It also has hanged imps in the second half.
And Seclusion begins where the Cargo Depot ends, with you coming from the dark tunnel with railroads inside of it.
Now let’s change the subject to how Alien Vendetta is hard as nails.
I would like to start it out by saying that the fourth map already has over 200 enemies on it (and that’s only Hurt Me Plenty). Later levels have sometimes over twice as much. And I’m not talking about some low-tier Imps that you can mow down (although you get many of these too), I'm talking about clouds of Revenants, Cacos, Hell Nobles, Arch-Viles (at least one time from what I can remember), once you even have to fight 6 Cyberdemons at once (if you want to and thankfully there is invulnerability). Like, HOLY [[CUNGADERO]], what an absolute Hell it is!
If some of you are actually thinking about marathoning Alien Vendetta, DON’T!!! Just don’t, okay?! You will be tired and sick of this WAD! Take at least a five to fifteen minutes long break after finishing a map that has at least 200 demons on it (GZDoom was counting lost souls too in my case). I believe it will help you, both physically and mentally.
Now let me tell you about the three hardest maps from this WAD (two of which were inspired by Resistance is Futile and Post Mortem from Hell Revealed) in the order they appear while playing:
No Guts No Glory might be the hardest out of this trilogy, since only in the first big arena you are surrounded by five cows and other types of demonic shit in dozens each.
Demonic Hordes is considered to be the hardest map in this WAD and has 775 enemies on Hurt Me Plenty... But I would be lying if I didn’t say that this was the most manageable and easiest map to finish (still hard though).
And Dark Dome has an absolutely brutal beginning. At least the other maps start out in a safe area. Other than that, I’m still questioning if this map is actually harder than the one it was inspired by.
Other levels before and after these three maps, despite their own hard moments, legitimately feel like a cakewalk compared to these circles of Hell.
The only bug I encountered during my playthroughs of this WAD was in Nemesis, where part of the water disappeared and I could see the void.
As for the bugs that I didn’t encounter but are still prominent, asides from the previously mentioned Misri Halek being too big to be played with saving in its original form without a source port, you might get stuck inside one of the secrets in Bulls on Parade. That’s basically everything I can remember.
And that’s basically all I have to say about Alien Vendetta.
Is it great? Yes.
Is it hard? Yes.
Is it perfect? Don’t make me laugh. Nothing is perfect.
Is it the best WAD of the 2000s? Honestly, I don’t know. As I said, it’s a great WAD if not tiring. I would probably have to play the rest of the standard, 30-32 maps long MegaWADs from that decade to find out if that title still holds up.
If you want to hear more about this MegaWAD have a Dean of Doom review of it (warning: it’s a bit archaic though):
And like I said earlier, do not marathon this WAD. Take a small break after finishing every longer map. Only do this if you are masochistic, especially if you are playing on Ultra-Violence.
sigh
Sometimes I feel like this WAD should be split into episodes to make myself split the review and make my life easier (to some degree).
...
Wait a minute...
You start looking at “2002 A Doom Odyssey”.
I think I might have come out with something.
See you next time.
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