Mod 3: The Stranger

Name:The Stranger
Number:3
Year:2006
Mod for:Doom
Modder:WildWeasel
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:4/5
Time:6 hours

As an aside, instead of the base levels, I used OBLIGE to make a custom set of levels for this review. If you don't know, its a computer map generator. While it is very obviously limiting, and very clearly bad, if you need a custom levelset for say, the DoomRL mod or that Call of Duty one, then its fine. Key word, custom, not quick.

Ah, anime, that great Japanese succubus that eats the souls of men. (and some women) The Stranger is not the first game to merge shooters and anime together, by my definition there are at least three Japanese titles and one western. Although at this point I cannot remember if that some are ports. It is the first one I played, however, and feels like a more realistic starting point. Its not the first mod to do that, although it might be the first Doom mod. I'm not going to talk about THAT Wolfenstein mod yet, because I don't hate myself enough at the moment to do that. I'm not sure its even possible for me to hate myself enough to want to do that.

The stated primary influences are Trigun, Hellsing and Ghost in the Shell. Hellsing has no weapons related to it. Given how the mod is balanced this is probably because they'd be too powerful. Ghost in the Shell has one, the auto-pistol, and outside of the crossbow everything that has an actual influence is taken from Trigun. Weapons are taken from surprisingly specific episodes. Which effectively makes this Trigun: Doom Edition. All you need now is to slap on some map pack set in a desert.

I will be talking about the weapons roughly in order.

In slot 1, you have Martial Arts, a fist replacement. For the primary, its has a three-hit combo that's useful if you're desperate. For the secondary, a shockwave attack that hurts you. If that's an attempt at balancing, its a bad one, since you are going to only use it if you lack any ammo for the real weapons. For the chainsaw, there are throwing knives, which can be picked up after being thrown. They also have the secondary attack of just cutting someone. Given the anime theme, I'm surprised they aren't called Kunai or something. One big problem is that they seem to be the highest priority weapon, meaning if I run out I switch to this automatically, instead of something useful when I'm already about to die.

Possibly the ugliest Luger I've ever seen

You might not be able to tell, but the pistol seems to be a mod of the Duke one.

In slot 2, you have a Luger pistol. Stated influence is that WW had the files for this on his computer, but Lupin III exists so who cares? It doesn't have a lot of accuracy or bullets so its usefulness is until you get...The Auto-Pistol. It has no accuracy but carries 30 bullets and pumps them out at a steady pace. One problem is that it jams, constantly, a feature I question the balancing of. The auto pistol already hits like ass, why would it need to be weaker?

In slot 3, a revolver, seemingly based on the Mateba Autorevolver, a gun that fires considerably faster than this game's imitation of it. Hits like a truck against most enemies, so its all good. This is your shotgun replacement, effectively. Eventually, you get two, solving firing speed as an issue. The only problem now is how to feed it.

In slot 4, a double-barrel personal shotgun. Like a really tiny one. You fire it twice, not both barrels at the same time. Its not bad, it isn't even useless when we get...Power Shotgun, which holds eight shells and fires them off two at a time. It hits hard, but it feels slow. The combination of the low-wait time between shots and the reload time makes it a gun you won't use as often as you should.

In slot 5, you have an assault rifle and a heavy machine gun. The former, faster, clip-based, more accurate. The later slower, no clip, less accurate. I found in practice there was little need for two different weapons and mostly used the heavy machine gun. Neither of them were terribly powerful.

In slot 6, there are hand grenades, which okay. I didn't find a lot of them, but when I did they didn't do much good. They felt too floaty. There are also satchel charges, which instead don't feel powerful enough.

In slot 7, a crossbow, which is silent. Useful if you want to be silent, hey, it happens. Weak otherwise. There's also a sniper rifle, instead of sniping, it penetrates multiple characters. I found that to be a bit difficult to utilize effectively.

In slot 8, an explosive cannon. It felt really underpowered, which is a problem when the weapons here already felt underpowered. I swear I saw a zombieman tank a shot. A lance cannon, which is effectively a high damaging semi-auto weapon. This one was really effective for what it was.

In slot 9, an anti-tank rifle, which is really an inaccurate rocket launcher. Felt a bit underpowered and the inaccuracy didn't help things, but overall this was a pretty good rocket launcher replacement. There's also a demon arm, it uses your health as ammunition and seems to cut through most enemies like butter. Very nice, doesn't help the overall problem the weaponset has though.

If you cheat, there's two weapons in slot 0. These were axed by WW but kept in...for fun, I guess. A Glock...just a Glock. I can see why it was left out. What appears to be a modified version of the shotgun from Duke Nukem 3D. Its semi-automatic and reloads quickly. Suffice to say, I can see why it was left out since it actually works as a shotgun.

This weaponset works well in some respects. If you want to kind of sneak through the level, you have some throwing knives and all your problems will be solved. I mean, until there's something that you can't sneak up on or the target is more than a few feet away. I'm assuming you'll be changing if a crapton of enemies pop up anyway. Its also good for multiple weak enemies and a handful of strong ones. The rapid fire weapons are good at this, and most single fire ones have a habit of gibbing enemies. However, this is not very good when the enemy count gets higher, which it does. You have no way of effectively dealing with them. No BFG-like weapon. The demon arm and sniper go through enemies, but that's not very helpful when you've got a lot to deal with that aren't in a straight line.
One thing that isn't something you really think of, but there's a lot of neat effects going on. Smoke and shell casings are the most noticeable.

What about enemies? There's a good chunk unmodified from the base game. Changed monsters seem limited to spectre, lost soul, pain elemental and archvile. Although there are minor changes to the shotgunner, mostly to bring it in line with how the shotguns work in this game. The former two are changed to make them more explosive, the lost soul in particular now being a drone that explodes upon death. Making it a mobile explosive. The latter two are changed so they don't resurrection/spawn enemies, the archvile is now that mech from Strife.

A minor issue is that the invulnerability powerup completely turned the screen blue. Which would be a problem if you use this on a normal mapset.

Weapons:
Interesting weapons, but without a real horde option, not good for most levelsets. 5/10

Enemies:
Outside of the mech from Strife, I've got no complaints. 7/10

Graphics:
There's a new palette which makes things interesting, which is a plus. On the other hand, the weapon sprites don't really feel all that cohesive. 4/10

Sound:
Most sounds are taken from other shooters, but only the new death sounds are obvious about it. 3/5

That's 19 out of 35. As a replacement, its only good for low enemy wads. There are very few of those, giving this a limited usefulness.

Mod 2: Wolfenstein: The Original Missions

Name:Wolfenstein: The Original Missions
Number:2
Year:1997?
Mod for:Doom
Modder:Las Rojas
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:3/5
Time:1 hour and 30 minutes (unfinished)

I don't know what I can lay the blame on here. Myself? Eh. I guess. This ended up being a mission in torture. At the end of my Wolfenstein 3D review, I am hopeful. Meanwhile, here at just the fourth Wolfenstein related game, I'm exhausted. What good have I missed? I've got nothing much to say about it. Its Wolfenstein, with Doom game logic. That works in places and others...not so much.

Weapons:
The same as Wolfenstein. 2/10

Enemies:
The same as Wolfenstein. 4/10.

Levels:
I realize there were only minor changes, but some of the changes are not good changes. I should not have to deal with elevators in a game that doesn't deal with them. While LZWolf is putting in-level elevator support, its the quick kind. Also, those secret levels. 2/10

Atmosphere:
There's kind of a charming atmosphere to this despite the quality issues. Which I guess is code for it's better than the sum of its parts. Something made me want to complete the entire game, again, for the fourth time. There's something charming about a colorful game about killing nazis. 0/10

Graphics:
With Doom's lighting engine the game feels wrong. Unnecessary. Plus the odd graphical improvements from the original artwork looks weird. 4/10

Sound/Music:
A mismatch of sounds that were taken from random other games, but I'm sure in actuality were taken from Wolfenstein Mac. Music is going to be bad depending on your soundfont. 3/10

A 15 out of 60. I think I'll fudge the math on that to a 14. That makes it the best mod so far. Which isn't shocking because the other competition is Barneystein.

What's this? Nocturnal Missions is next on my mod list? Eh....I guess I should see the secret...no, that's how...ah. Who knows what's next. Besides not Wolfenstein. Maybe...maybe something anime-related.

Mod 1: Barneystein 3D

Name:Barneystein
Number:1
Year:1993
Mod for:Wolfenstein 3D
Modder:PC-Crap
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:3/5
Time:1 hour

When I first started Wolfenstein, I knew I wasn't just going to do the base game or Spear of Destiny. I had to do my first experience with Wolfenstein 3D. You see, while I started with the shareware version of it. I didn't start with the official shareware, but rather, a mod of the shareware version*. I didn't know this right away. You see, the enhancements weren't on by default in my version, so I didn't find out until later when I went messing around with the disc of shareware I got it on. Lo, and behold, I find Barneystein is on my version. Barneystein graphics, and a bunch of stories. Stories, I should add, that a pre-teen child should not have been reading. Sure, this game contained scenes of violence involving people getting shot and creating bloodpiles, but it was all in a cartoony way, not as all realistic. Sure enough, I was terrified of the story and quit the setup instantly.

THIS INTRO CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE DAY OF THE BARNEY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
...if you even care.

Barneystein is a confusing story. It takes place after Wolfenstein. BJ is back in America, presumably raising Commander Keen's dad with his famous actress wife. He's stealing cable FROM THE FUTURE! One of Barney's children, Maca'hzar, also a time and dimension traveling wizard, teleports to his house and asks to come in. BJ takes issue with Maca'hzar's use of his nickname by way of threatening to murder him and asks him to call him Bill. "Bill" then lets him come in and the discuss both "Bill" and Maca'hzar's adventures. "Bill" being completely freaking psychopathic in this story, putting this game in line with a slightly alternate reality New Order series.
Maca'hzar of course, relates the tale of Day of the Barney, in which Barney convinces the children of the world to kill all the adults. His new world order involving killing any male over the age of 14 and impregnating the females. How a boy named Johnny finally killed him. And how Maca'hzar became such a mystical fellow.
"Bill" is perfectly willing to handle ol' Barney, because he always wanted to kill a dinosaur. The game also makes fun of Wyoming. Personally, I think if you make an elaborate backstory for your game about killing a stupid children's mascot character that no one over the age of five likes, you shouldn't be making fun of anyone. Also, apparently The Doctor** gave "Bill" cable. Given the writing, I buy it. "Bill" also whines about not getting sent directly to Level 9 and so forth.
Maca'hzar also goes on to mention that Barney clones his enemies so he can kill and torture them multiple times. He's also cloned and brainwashed...Beavis and Butthead. I actually remembered this, what gave me real pause was The Doctor. He also goes on to mention that the gatling gun will be a laser particle cannon. Now, I'm just a dumb American, but aren't lasers and particles completely different? Jeez, I haven't even played it yet and I'm already questioning the game's entire logic.
To finish it all off, the author of the game breaks the fourth walls, and whines about Wolfedit. Oh, joy, its going to have Blake Stone sprites. It ends with him saying I have better things to do, but I won't do them anyway. With the use of the word "smeg". You know, I vaguely like Red Dwarf and The Doctor and I want to strangle this guy through time. Well, you know, I could read Moby Dick instead. Herman Melville is a much better author than I think any of us give him credit for. Recently I read Typee and thought it quite intriguing. I could work on making a game. No, I've got to relive a Wolf mod from my childhood.
Barneystein, when you get down to it, is a slightly modified Episode I. You get some recolored sprites, some recolored textures from Blake Stone. I think one of the wall textures is from Spear of Destiny. That's great. Smoke comes out of the pistol barrel now for some reason. All the other weapons are recolored. There seem to be two sets of sounds in this game, one for the crappy cards which sound like complete garbage, and the other one which is fine. Ripped, but fine.
Onto the meat of the mod.

E1M1:
Its a riff on the original. Follows most of the same beats but does it differently. Doesn't link to the secret level, which is smart. We also begin with some subtle satire, like the MTV logo replacing the swastika and Barney replacing Hitler. We also get a boatload of purple. I don't mind that, we're assuming that Barney is very vain.
We also get to see some other cartoon mascots tortured. We a pile of bones with a Merlin hat, and what appears to be Tigger tied up. There's a sentence I don't want to use again.

E1M2:
Commits a cardinal sin of level design, having the area behind the player be a new area rather than the blocked off way back. The real attraction of this level is a long hallway where you're trapped between two groups of B&B. You can't enter either area with the enemies, so you have to fight them at a disadvantage. If you want to. There's plenty of ammo and health hidden behind some Catacomb Abyss level secrets. Also in the subtle satire layer, we have a McDonalds meal replacing the blood from the base game. The health items go like this now: Medikit>Candy Bar>Something vaguely green in a bowl?>McDonalds. Is there a cheaper shot at this point?

E1M3:
Ground floor already? This level is a castle-type level. For the first half. Its certainly densely packed. The latter half has basically no health or ammo beyond McDonalds and scavenged ammo. If I need McDonalds for health, chances are I'm already dead***.

E1M4:
I'm starting off weakened and about to die because nobody left any ammo on the last level. This feeling is extended because there's a horde of enemies nearby that I have no choice but to kill in my current state.
The level itself brings to mind Nitemare 3D's E1M2, a square room with four exits leading to another square room with six exits leading to different areas. This level has no mercy in terms of supplies. There's probably something inside the secret rooms here, but there was no obvious place for them to be. Excepting the exit, which is hidden behind a level exit that turns out to be a pushwall.

E1M5:
Yeah, start me off with a ton of enemies, that isn't annoying at all. This levelpack seems to be balanced around you just surviving off the scraps of your enemies. Also, Piglet is here in a cage. And some elephant. There are certainly elements of greatness here, several areas that you see can later be entered, but we aren't quite there yet. Some unnecessary locked areas with supplies in them is a nice touch.

E1M6:
24 enemies and I have almost full supplies. Very disappointing. Don't mistake that for ease. This is a big level and its easy to wake enemies early. You won't be the only one scrambling around the labyrinth.

E1M7:
A bunch of zig-zagging corridors with enemies on both sides. This was in registered Wolf. I can't see why Apogee and Id would be upset at this at all. I don't think it had a bunch of supplies at the start nor a pushwall at the end. The rest is just a long walk through a corridor with some side rooms. Also hope you weren't shooting for 100% secrets, bud, because some of them are mutually exclusive. Like ones on either end of a blocked off area. Absolutely no health items after the start, yay.

E1M8:
Why its a maze. You know what I like after a maze? Another maze. A corpse of Kermit is here. Its probably earlier in the game, but I didn't find it. Its funny how all the characters here are owned by Disney. You could change a few words and graphics around and blam Disney satire. You'd also have to work in the acid mines to pay off Disney when they sued your ass, but hey, we can't have everything.
We once again get the required push wall, this time a mini-pushwall maze. I did not realize how low this game was going to dive.

E1M9:
I guess I missed the secret level. How horrible. How will I ever live with myself? How can I go on with this project? I'd continue this, but guess which level needs you to find a secret to win? How lovely.
So, Barney looks like that, he has some badly done audio I presume is ripped from something. That's the end of it. The final area looks like a wide open area with a couple of swastikas.

That was certainly something. Let's see how it stacks up. The enemies and items are all the same as Wolf, despite the different graphics.

Levels:
Eh, some were better, some were worse, and some did what I would call 'bad level design'. 2/10

Graphics:
This section can be summed up as, look ma, I changed the palette in my shootin' game. Some are ripped from Blake Stone. Some, I presume, is original. 2/10

Story:
The guy didn't even bother to change the in-game text. 1/10

Sound/Music:
There's a lot of sound ripped from other sources. It clashes with each other and with the sounds that are still from the base game. Not even bothering to change the music either. 0/10

Now, I may have lost the ability to add in the hour I played this game, but I think that adds up to 5 out of 40. Of course it does, why would you play this today?

I'd also like to add that this mod also has a post taken from Usenet about the content of Barney compared to Seasme Street and Mr Rogers. Honestly, the content contained next to the mod is far more interesting than the mod itself.
https://wl6.fandom.com/wiki/Barneystein_3-D
http://hiaaron.com/wolf3d/gutentag-content.html (scroll down, you'll see it eventually)
Of course, that last link shows me I'm not quite done with that damn purple dinosaur.

*Hence, why, if you check early stuff regarding Doom, they ask you to make modifications only for the registered version. I'm guessing this had something to do with it. If they give a shit now, who knows.
**As in Doctor Who.
***Please take this out of context. I don't hate McDonalds like so many others do, but I would find a random inclusion of that quote hilarious.