Hell Revealations

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Hell Revealations
Title screen, created by Andrik PowellTitle screen, created by Andrik Powell
Authors The SLOTTER Team
Port Vanilla Doom
IWAD Doom II
Year 2023
Link Doomworld/idgames

Hell Revealations (HRs) is a 33-map (plus 11 bonus maps and 1 Director's Cut level) megawad for Doom II. The project was created by The SLOTTER Team, led by Andrik Powell (Arsinikk). The mapset acts as a spiritual successor to the classic megawads Hell Revealed and Hell Revealed II. In the tradition of its predecessors, Hell Revealations presents the player with challenging gameplay, at times even exceeding the difficulty of the original megawads. The WAD was finalized and uploaded to the idgames archive on November 19, 2023.

The megawad features new monsters and minor tweaks via DeHackEd, including fast weapon switching. A palette similar to 100 Line Massacre is used, tweaking the yellows to more saturated golds, with a softer blue color range. The colormap has also been tweaked to include a gold un-inverted invulnerability screen more similar to Heretic's Ring of Invincibility.

The soundtrack is composed of tracks from Hell Revealed II and Lee Jackson's Rise of the Triad MIDIs, including some bespoke tracks. A full original soundtrack is currently in the works.[1]

Infopack[edit]

The welcome screen of the infopack.
Interactive MAP25 screen of the infopack.

Like Hell Revealed, and other megawads of the era such as Memento Mori and Memento Mori II, Hell Revealations also includes an "infopack" available alongside the WAD. Unlike Hell Revealed's 16-bit Windows application, Hell Revealations was developed as a 32-bit application, allowing for it to be run on modern Windows operating systems. It was created by Arsinikk using a 2011 version of GameMaker.

The infopack layout was designed to be similar to the Hell Revealed infopack, relying on mouse-based input, but also allows for keyboard-only navigation. Each screen contains a section header, a screenshot, a big text box, and bottom button navigation: one to view the table of contents (or menu), and two to go to either the previous or next page of the presentation. From the "Table of Contents" page, two additional control buttons appear in the top right: an "X" that quits the application, and a music control button that allows for the music to stop or continue playing. The first page is a welcome screen, followed by an introduction to the WAD, the story, "what's included" page, "gameplay changes" page, and individual pages for all 44 levels. It concludes with an in-depth MAP25 commentary page which allows for the user to press on each individual part of the map for specific commentary for the 11 mapper map. A "Behind the Scenes" page and "Credits / Thanks" page follows after. While the program runs, Arsinikk's bespoke track written for MAP25 "Watch as the Angels Fall from the Heavens into the City of Sin" plays in an endless loop.

Story[edit]

"Decades ago, one marine was sent out to clean up some supposedly invested labs experimenting with jumpgates. The marine prodigy fought his way through the demon hordes of Eden, ventured through the City in the Clouds, down The Path and through The Black Towers, until finally Ascending the Stars conquering the Temple of Fear.

For years that marine had kept the demons at bay... However recently, the UAC have noticed some unusual activity happening near the abandoned labs. Your job is to investigate the labs once again and hopefully not come across any Hell Revealations.

To read the full background on the award-winning Hell Revealations story, send $500 to us, and we'll send it to you somehow. Trust me."
― Story from Infopack

The final line is a joke in reference to the original Hell Revealed Infopack "story screen" mentioning to send the mappers $500.

In the final text screen of the megawad, it includes Shackled and Insatanity, which are Hell Revealed II levels, as well as the final line "The Story Continues in the sequel: HR II". This, in conjunction with the Hell Revealed references in the infopack story background, means that the Hell Revealations story is meant to take place after Hell Revealed, but before Hell Revealed II.

Multiplayer[edit]

All of the 33 maps in the megawad include full deathmatch and cooperative support. All deathmatch arenas have been tested and approved by multiplayer mapper Colton Murchison (Arrowhead),[2] who also created the multiplayer area in MAP25: City of Sin. Cooperative support should be seen as more of a super hard difficulty, listed as "Hell Revealed II" in ZDoom-based ports.

Note that the Bonus WAD and Ex Nihilo: Directors' Cut map do not have full deathmatch support.

Bonus maps[edit]

Recreation of the Hell Revealed title screen for the Bonus WAD.

Hell Revealations includes a bonus WAD (HRsBonus) that contains 11 extra maps that were cut from the main WAD for various reasons. Many of the maps that were cut were originally included in SLOTTER II Demo when Hell Revealations started out as a Hell Revealed parody. The bonus WAD has separate resources and should not be played with the main WAD.

On April 23, 2024, Monsieur E released "Ex Nihilo: Directors' Cut", the original unedited edition of MAP28 of HRs. It was found to be too overbearing and extremely difficult, beyond what the project's intended scope was. The map requires the main HRs WAD to be run alongside it.

Content[edit]

Gameplay changes[edit]

Custom monsters[edit]

Baron of stone
An ash-colored baron of Hell with wings and 2000 hit points but no type of attack. The infopack describes it as essentially "a portable moving door."
Illuminati
A stationary monster that looks like the evil eye decoration. Has no wake up sound but will start shooting arachnotron plasma bolts. Explodes like a barrel on death. Has 90 hit points.
Arsinikk head
Replaces Romero's head. Depicts a severed head of project leader Arsinikk's avatar. While overall functionality is the same, there are additional animation frames, as well as separate "pain" and "death" frames. The head can be seen in full at the end of MAP26: More Than You Can Chew or on MAP30: After Death when using the idclip cheat code and going behind the face of the final boss.

Weapon changes[edit]

Note: Every weapon has notably faster weapon-switching speed.

  • Double fists: Faster punching and doubles the damage of each punch.
  • Double chainsaw: Chainsaw cuts twice as fast for twice the damage. However, this makes it harder to control due to the chainsaw's pulling mechanics. Has a cat emblem.
  • Pistol: Shoots twice as fast.
  • Shotgun: Reload time is slightly faster.
  • Pulveriser: Shoots twice as fast.
  • Plasma rifle: No post-fire delay sequence.
  • BFG9000: Recovers faster after firing. Uses an unused BFG firing sprite.

Built-in demos[edit]

The main WAD features four built-in demos. All require Doom II v1.9 to view them. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP13: Toxic Kiln 4 1058 0:30.23
DEMO2 MAP06: Heavy Damage 4 923 0:26.37
DEMO3 MAP25: City of Sin 4 1302 0:37.20
DEMO4 MAP33: Rip and Tear 4 3583 1:42.37

And the bonus WAD also features four built-in demos for the same Doom version. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP02: I Smell Barons 4 954 0:27.26
DEMO2 MAP07: Cacomorphobia 4 1128 0:32.23
DEMO3 MAP14: The Puzzle 4 959 0:27.40
DEMO4 MAP29: Trapped in Kalisto 4 2704 1:17.26

Demo packs[edit]

Two official demo packs are planned for Hell Revealations. The first, Hell Revealations Help Demos (HRsHELP.zip), is a collection of demos recorded on the Hell Revealed Difficulty (Ultra-Violence) in no monsters mode to show how to complete each level with 100% secrets. This includes demos for both the main WAD and the bonus maps. All of these demos were recorded by Arsinikk. Unlike Hell Revealed's MAP07: Arachnophobia, Hell Revealations had tweaks that allow for both MAP07s to be completable in no monsters mode.

The second work-in-progress pack is for a full UV max demo collection. The demopack is currently accepting submissions via its Doomworld thread.

History[edit]

A demo for Hell Revealations known as SLOTTER II (14 maps) was released six months prior on April 1, 2023, as a Hell Revealed Parody and an April Fools joke. Most of these maps were placed into the bonus WAD, when the project took a more serious turn. A few of the maps ended up in the main WAD, but with some minor changes, including the addition of deathmatch arenas.

Gallery[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Arsinikk (19 November 2023). "There may be an original bespoke soundtrack coming in the near future..." HRs.txt on /idgames archive. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  2. ↑ Arsinikk (5 October 2023). All 33 maps have been reviewed and approved by deathmatch aficionado Arrowhead to ensure that all the maps are fun and balanced!. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
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