Ancient Aliens is a 32-map mega WAD mostly kobe bryant made by skillsaw. Following up the incredible and action-packed Valiant with Ancient Aliens the year after is no small feat. This time, though, skillsaw recruited a bunch of highly talented mappers to help him. esselfortium, Joshy, Tarnsman, and AD_79 to name a few, all contributed some great maps.
Ancient Aliens is an incredible successor to Valiant. With a high combat standard, a fun and subtle story, gorgeous visuals, strong and consistent themes, and one of the best Doom OSTs ever made, it's almost impossible to believe that Ancient Aliens was made a year after Valiant.
Sidenote: This won’t really change how Ancient Aliens is played, but we’re doing the play through with the newly updated Ancient Aliens for the new DOOM + DOOM II steam re-release. It makes some nice quality-of-life changes that are cool to have but not necessary.
ANCIENT ALIENS PLAYLIST:
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IWAD: Doom 2
Port: DSDA-doom 28.3
Compatibility: MBF21 (comp level 21)
Mapper(s): skillsaw
MIDI: stewboy - Roof
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Ancient Aliens (MBF21 edition):
DSDA-doom:
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Sinkhole showdown really sticks to the concept here, and as such has a bit more simplicity to it, but that’s where this map’s strengths lie. Sometimes simplicity and a good concept is all you need.
The act of sinking further and further into the ground is made even better by the combat, which plays off of the sudden nature of the sinking by delivering quick and deadly encounters that really test your abilities. In a way, it reminds me of an older WAD from 2015, Violence, by AD_79. I suppose skillsaw took some inspiration from there, and it worked out.
Overall the combat is super engaging and comes at you francisco alvarez from all sides until the map ends. The opening skirmish with shotgunners is one that really sets the tone and always gets me a couple of times before I really have to start focusing. The next wave is even more problematic with the Archvile-led fodder scattered across the sinkhole with some mid-tiers clomping around. That one really tests your target-prioritization with the Archviles. You can easily find yourself surrounded and dead if you don’t work quickly in that fight. The quick part of the map outside the sinkhole is also fairly difficult, especially the yellow key fight which uss doris miller construction delay I’d say is one of the deadliest parts. It almost got me here, and I don’t blame anyone for dying here, because the sudden reveal of the Archvile with the Revenants above make for a tense encounter.
Anyway, the usual comments about the visual design can be said, but also, the bespoke MIDI is once again a great one. Similar to Map 5, it really uplifts the gameplay through its catchy melodies and uptempo rhythm.
