WAD Review of AVRAX.WAD (ocf.unt.edu /pub/doom/wads/newwads2/avrax.wad) ====================================================================== Title : AVRAX.WAD Author : John Lindsey Email Address : lindsey@lennon.cc.gatech.edu Misc. Author Info : "Mail me your favorite slaying spot!" Description: If you like huge deathmatch WADs this one's for you. Avrax con- tains gargantuan numbers of ammunition, and running out of ammo will happen right after cows begin to fly. Avrax is sort of just a bunch of rooms, with some hallways put between them. I couldn't find a theme for the area, but maybe I missed something. Avrax only plays as a multiplayer game (i.e., no monsters) and loads as e3l4. Lindsey says that it loads on this mission for the fact that "I like the music." Well, there is no music. The "music" on this level consists mostly of a bunch of sonar-like pings and other effects. * * * If you've read this far I've really got to congratulate you, becuase I have no idea why I've even written this far. To harp on the obvious just a little more, loading doom with -wart 3 4 is sort of a pain, and one of my doomates forgot and crashed the game on us (thanks, Sam). Avrax has a lot of rooms and a lot of ammo. The only room of interest maybe is a huge room with a skyscraper elevator. To console ourselves for playing a WAD in which we wandered around for twenty minutes and only managed 21 kills between us, we watched each other jump off this elevator as it neared the top. Quite a sight. Basically, playing Avrax means wandering around for a few minutes until you see someone, then holding a rocket-expenditure contest with your new-found death partner. Of course, the loser of this contest isn't the person who gets rid of the least rockets, but the person who gets rid of the one that kills you. Other than the fact that there's three plasma rifles, one BFG9000, three (?) chainsaws, and about four shotguns and chainguns (read: weapon overload) the textures of the rooms are ghastly. I'm not sure why Lindsey chose to include almost every texture DOOM.WAD contained in his level, but maybe I don't want to find out. As a believer in some sort of theme for a level, I found looking at the myriad of colors in each room somewhat annoying. Also, the "door and a half" part, where it was too wide for a standard door, so it looked like a door and a half, looked pretty crappy. Lindsey says he's from Georgia Tech. Come on, you ramblin wreck, you can engineer a better level than that. ;) On scales of 0 to 10: Layout: 6 Textures: 2 Difficulty: 4 Huntability: 6 Funness: 1 On a Cameron overall scale of 0 to 10, AVRAX.WAD scores a 4.8. Level Hint: Get 50 rockets, 300 cells, 200 bullets and 50 shells and sit yourself down in a corner. Fire waves of death at the first unfortunate that happens along. Daniel. dmccarty@sitvax.stevens-tech.edu