2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

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Catastrophe
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2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#1

Post by Catastrophe » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:20 am

Image
Created by MXU and various others
Project Background: DBAB, or rather, Don't Be A Bitch is a New-School competitive megawad designed for non-objective modes like Deathmatch or Last Man Standing (with heavy emphasis on the latter). By design it requires Eon Weapons, thus this review is based on my experience using it.

Content: This pack contains a total of 33 maps with notable features being an emphasis on utilizing 3D Floors to add an extra dimension to the competitive experience. Most of the maps are acceptable in size where a match usually doesn't take too long to end unless a someone is purposely stalling. The detail of the maps are usually on point but you might have some lackluster ones here and there.

The layouts of the map are all over the place. Some are pretty solid while others tried to be different but don't execute well. The weaker maps typically gave a vibe of inexperienced mapping; for example, some of them feel very square like, with either too much height variance or too little. Some of the maps tried to mask that flaw by utilizing 3D floors but I don't think that worked out too well. Inexperience aside, most of the maps thankfully are devoid of the dead-ends and camp-spots that previous Deathmatch/Last Man Standing mappacks are plagued with. The amount of testing that went into this really helped in that aspect. Personally, the best maps were usually ones that weren't generic Doom bases. The ones that tried to be different were damn fun to play on. Unfortunately a good portion of the maps felt like small, square-like Doom bases and it hurts the overall quality of the pack.


Rating:
Fun Factor - 8 / 10 I love (T)LMS so it'll always be fun.
Balance - 8 / 10 Most of the maps are fair but there are really small ones that are just meh.
Creativity - 6 / 10 There wasn't really anything too creative besides 3d floors.
Replay Value - 7 / 10 Its good to replay on other gamemodes but you can't replay this with other mods without a patch since it requires eon weapons.

7.25 / 10 - ONLY FUN IN LARGE (T)LMS MATCHES

Image
Created by MXU and various others
Project Background: AEON DM is essentially the spiritual successor to DBAB. This pack should ideally be played with Eon Weapons, thus this review will be my experience with that.

Content: Like its predecessor, this pack contains a total of 33 maps with a much higher level of detail than before. The packs main gimmick is no longer just 3d floors, and there's a lot more variance and uniqueness to the maps.

The detail of the maps blow DBAB out of the water. Right off the bat you have a nicely made Egyptian-themed map with a fluid layout, a damn nice space-themed map, etc. Almost all of the maps are just plain awesome and you don't feel the quality dips that DBAB has. There are very few maps in this pack I'd consider bad, but even then the worst ones are still better than the bad maps of DBAB. My favorite aspect of the pack are maps that have unique themes, for instance, one is based on Hearts, another has a swamp theme (a style that no one even does anymore), Minecraft, etc. I also really enjoyed maps that utilized colored sectors in outside areas to match the skybox, though I wish more of the maps in this pack did this. One complaint I do have is this glass texture used in some maps; it looks nothing like glass and just streaks of white, even using translucent SHAWN2 would've been better in my opinion. But overall the detailing was excellent.

The layouts of the maps are a vast improvement over DBAB. There are a few small square-like maps here and there but it seems this pack took the best qualities from DBAB and further expanded on it. Originally, I thought that the gimmick maps like Minecraft would've been just purely aesthetics and not actually good gameplay but thankfully I was wrong. None of the detail in the map ever got in my way when playing, nothing seemed too distracting (except for maybe the falling meteors map), and most of the maps were just the right size. Overall, the layouts were on point.

All in all, this is arguably one of the best mappacks thats been released in the past decade. You just don't see any map packs with consistently good gameplay across a whopping 33 maps anymore. Do I think DBAB deserved a cacoaward? No. Do I think this does? Hell yes.

Rating:
Fun Factor - 9 / 10 Maps were very fluid and were damn fun to play.
Balance - 9 / 10 I have no complaints about balance aside from maybe a very small few hiding spots.
Creativity - 9 / 10 Creativity is the highlight of this mappack. The only thing weighing this down are a few select maps that felt generic.
Replay Value - 9 / 10 Since this doesn't rely on Eon Weapons you can reuse it for just about anything.

9 / 10 - MUST PLAY

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Razgriz
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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#2

Post by Razgriz » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:57 am

My first map executed quite well. It's a nice, open, good paced skulltag animal map, otherwise it would've joined the other bad/unplayable maps in the trash compactor in Beyond Omega.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#3

Post by Mobius » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:58 am

Catastrophe wrote:Do I think DBAB deserved a cacoaward?
Image
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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#4

Post by Ru5tK1ng » Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:13 am

No memes where's the dislike button? ^

Also that map was not executed well first the terrible stairs then the fact 3 people tried to detail the map. It was a learning experience and could have been done better which is why the next strangle maps were much better.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#5

Post by Razgriz » Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:15 am

You call keos' attempt at changing one wall texture legitimate? Only Arg really made the map look better than it was, smh lesser brother.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#6

Post by Ru5tK1ng » Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:27 am

Doesn't matter if he did less, he touched it and someone caused this. My point still stands.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#7

Post by Razgriz » Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:28 am

I can't be held accountable after it left my hands, blame Keo..or Decay....

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#8

Post by Lollipop » Tue Mar 21, 2017 12:25 pm

Great review, I will be on the lookout for populated servers with these when I get my connection working properly again.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#9

Post by Ivan » Tue Mar 21, 2017 2:03 pm

Mobius wrote:
Catastrophe wrote:Do I think DBAB deserved a cacoaward?
Image
I like how one of my maps is in there.
=== RAGNAROK DM ON ... uh... dead forever? ===
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=== Who wanta sum wang? ===
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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#10

Post by Galactus » Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:53 pm

Nice review! In my opinion DBAB hasn't aged very well and has become quite dull and boring. Aeon on the other hand is amazing and a definite upgrade from DBAB

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#11

Post by Razgriz » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:54 pm

Galactus wrote:Nice review! In my opinion DBAB hasn't aged very well and has become quite dull and boring. Aeon on the other hand is amazing and a definite upgrade from DBAB
The thing to remember about DBAB is that it started off as an LMS map pack, we got too far into the pack before we decided to do DM spawns. the RM was the attempt to replace very weak maps (blast furnace..) with something better, reshuffle the maplist and to fix all the DM spawns in maps. When I had decided to head Aeon with Decay, we both learned a lot from the last group of maps that we called "dbab3" that were too big to enjoy in DM or LMS. I had a clear idea of size, and that we should prioritize DM over LMS this time around despite people in the group like BOB who would always have something to say about that during testing. Aeon is essentially DBAB on DM steroids with some LMS supplements, in which DBAB was the other way around, which is also why the DM factor doesn't measure up to the same level as Aeon.

Great work to me though I made both wads easy.

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Re: 2-in-1 REVIEW #2: DBAB Remastered and Aeon DM

#12

Post by Mobius » Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:22 pm

Galactus wrote:Nice review! In my opinion DBAB hasn't aged very well and has become quite dull and boring. Aeon on the other hand is amazing and a definite upgrade from DBAB
That's because it was played to death not because of whatever you said
dewsome: i can do this all day
dewsome: do you think you're somehow special? i spent years arguing with nostar, jenova, mobius
<+Thomas13> Mobius u r inferior, go outside and get beaten up
Alfonzo ~ "I wonder who will hear him trash talk when the dirt closes over him?"

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