Nods To Mods: Winter's Fury

“Everybody has a story...”

-and hot diggty damn does this guy have one to tell!

I should preface by saying that it’s hard enough to make a good level just to play deathmatch in. From the actual know-how required to use CAD tools, to making sure textures align, you had to think about having a few decent choke points, and at best nail your weapon placement. Believe it or not, all that stuff is pretty hard to do well.

And then you’ve got single player levels… Everything mentioned before, but now you’ve got layers of balance to factor into it. Not just simple stuff like placing demons, and health and ammo sprinkled here and there, but you’ve got to consider the flow that the player will experience. Over years, skilled level builders broaden their toolboxes with clever ways to not only give the player something to shoot at, but to masterfully control the tension + tempo and perhaps, hardest of all; surprise the sh%t out of said player.

Add on top of that the insane dedication it takes to not only do all those things well, but to start stringing multiple levels together into a megawad. Of course, once you’re that committed, why not go full JUMP THE DAMN SHARK and just get custom graphics, sounds, music and full on crazy elaborate cut scenes to give the players a full story experience they can’t get anywhere else in the world?!? Right? Right.

These are level masters. They’re essentially building their own games on top of DOOM as the base for custom scenarios to their twisted mind’s content.

The wildman we’ll be focusing on for this month’s spotlight: Pyroscourge The MEGAWAD we’re featuring: WINTER’S FURY.WAD

NO PAIN ELEMENTALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS WAD

What do you need to play this WAD? GZDoom TIP: Make sure you go to OPTIONS -> SET VIDEO MODE-> RENDER MODE and set it to: OPENGL-ACCELERATED

Standout Features: Grey + Silver + Icy Blue textures and work over existing enemy sprites with some having completely new / upgraded attacks. A wild amount of new custom enemies including bosses and even a few tried and true sprites from Raven Software titles and a 3D Realms title you may just recognize. You’re also going to love seeing some tried and true DOOM enemies taking on new forms with completely different attacks and some grounded boys aren’t so grounded this time around in this icetopian wasteland!

B-b-b-boss fights?!

Weapons, weapons, weapons: Total weapon replacements; top to bottom! Try them all out because he didn’t just use the default sounds and DPS per weapon! You’re going to love the heavy machine gun as it rips through your foes at rates higher than the tried and true Chaingun! And the light blue energy discharge dancing out of the new plasma rifle will feel right at home with this MEAGAWADS icy aesthetics. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ENEMY KNOCKBACK when you connect with any of this new arsenal? MY GAWD.

Just give the super shotgun a try pointed at pretty much anything and watch said enemy fly across the screen. Fun times to be had!

Cut Scenes: To quote Pyroscourge himself, "Complete with backstory, in game dialogue, and skippable cut scenes. Except for one and a half of them. Long story. :P"

Here goes nothing...

It takes a village to make a MEGAWAD, so be sure to check out the credits here.

We wanna know what you guys think! How much did you love it? How long did it take you? How many times did you die on boss fights? What was the hardest level / boss? Does your dad work for Nintendo? TELL US EVERYTHING WINTER’S FURY.WAD RELATED IN THIS WINTERS FURY COMMENT THREAD!