One of my first memories of Doomworld was visiting not the Cacowards, but rather the Top 100 WADs of all time. That covers basically the entirety of the decade from when Doom started to the point in 2003 where the Cacowards would later celebrate ten great WADs and many more. The Top 100 WADs of course is outdated by today's standards, but these are the wads that are often considered the classics of their time. This post will outline my personal picks for the ten best WADs in each year of the Top 100 WADs and what I think overall of every one of them.
1994: The Evil Unleashed
This was actually quite hard despite the fact that 1994 was a year most people don't wanna look back on. For one Doomsday of UAC remains a memorable map with the invisible bridge, overturned sector truck, and decent gameplay. Then again, it is one level. When I played TEU I was finding myself creating carnage at every turn for all the levels. It's not quite slaugtherfest levels, but it almost hits those strides. In any case, the rampant gameplay of TEU gives it quite a considerable edge over the other WADs of the year in my book.
1995: H2H-XMAS
I generally love to look at cohesive WADs that not only have interesting flow from one level or area to the next, but also give me that drive to replay them over and over again. Half of the 1995 wads don't have good flow but are memorable maps, while the other half are fairly standard Doom wads that just feel okay to play in the modern day. For me, I enjoy H2H-XMAS, no matter what time of the year it is. Even though I've already outlined all the things about it in the very first Doom musing, I still find myself going back to it. A little joy in playing, if you will.
1996: Memento Mori II
This was a year of both megawads (both Memento Moris and Icarus) and small episodes (Trooper's Playground, Dystopia 3, AHIBL, AOD-DOOM). So a lot of great contenders to pick for my favorite for 1996. So why Memento Mori II? Seems rather strange, since the big megawads don't have any custom dehacked work unlike the crazy awesome AHIBL or the TC-like AOD-DOOM. Well, I'm a big fan of cohesion with megawads. I like how every level in this set feels seamless as you progress from one to the other (even though they don't segue in design or anything for the most part). Bottom line, the levels just seem to have the same sort of gravity in gameplay and design and MM2 is the best example of that.
1997: Eternal Doom
Described as the last great year of Doom, 1997 had titans in the megawads GothicDM, Requiem, Hell Revealed, STRAIN, and this pick, Eternal Doom. Personally, I think I've burned a lot of Eternal Doom in my head, thanks to the huge levels and the demos that I've watched. I felt like the biggest of the bunch deserve the recognition; there were amazing ideas and the design gets to be great without overdoing it. Of course, you can say this kinda thing for the other megawads I listed, but Eternal Doom has the most charm overall.
1998: Cyberdreams
To be frank, this wasn't much of a contest. While playing many, many Doom wads, the core gameplay always remained the same so at one point I end up getting bored with the game overall and hiatusing it. With that said I at least come back and finish the job. The majority of releases in 1998 that made the cut were quite small, leaving GothicDM2, the Ritenour levels, and finally this. Cyberdreams really spices things up, putting puzzles with deadly force to the player unlike many other things. Thanks to this WAD many other authors went for a puzzle route with some of their maps, with a few WADs even paying homage to Cyberdreams (10 Sectors MAP08 for example).
1999: Batman Doom
Again, not much contest. TCs tend to really catch the eye as they completely overhaul Doom's gameplay with new weapons, enemies, and levels. Batman Doom has it all and does it without ZDoom (this was of course the year ZDoom would start to grow, with KZDoom and Herian 2 being the only ZDoom wads listed here). Believe it or not, the best thing about Batman Doom isn't all the things I mentioned, but rather the storytelling aspect, going back to the Batcave as a slight rest while going through many different concepts like roof jumping, stopping infighting, explosive areas, fun houses. How can this not be the best pick of 1999?
2000: The Darkening Episode 2
I'm actually not that much of a fan of the 2000 WAD picks, but they are still fun to revisit. Chord3 is easily the nastiest Chord, while the Rajala maps are decent to plinker around with. The reason Darkening Episode 2 is on here though? It felt fresh. You're playing traditional Doom, but with a completely new look that makes it feel fresh. The looks and feels of the level layouts and design make it seem like something new even though the traditional Doom gameplay is there, and like Memento Mori II, the feel is just cohesive and united. This type of thing would later be echoed in Back to Saturn X, which does the "bring a new and original texture set and combine it with Doom's gameplay" ordeal yet again. It's why I joke that BTSX is Darkening E3.
2001: SlayeR
Gameplay is the one thing I value the most. While The Darkest Hour is a fairly neat TC and Equinox has some bodacious maps, there's quite a few empty spots in them. Likewise, the realism of Revolution! and the surrealism of Null Space makes them standouts. But for that traditional run-and-gun action, SlayeR wins. The levels are just a step above Plutonia, especially the rather grueling first challenge, and the compact design makes things even better. To me, it's a very overlooked episode, despite landing in the Top 100 WADs. Gotta give SlayeR its credit.
2002: Alien Vendetta
Did you really expect anything else? See, Hell Revealed was all about super hard gameplay that eclipsed Plutonia. Eternal Doom was about creating luscious layouts whilst keeping most of the things at a brisk and even pace. Alien Vendetta is the true child of both, while adding in excellent layout work and a wonderful amount of levels. Not everything is a slaughter, and not everything is an odyssey, but so many maps remain memorable that it's just difficult not to pass up.
2003: Void
This was arguably the hardest one for me to decide. It was between this or Scythe, and while others are fairly strong contenders (PAR for instance), I just felt like it was between these two for the best of 2003. The gameplay of Scythe is the kind that should be for most casual players, although with the size of many early levels, they are over too quickly. Of course, the slaughter levels in MAP26 and MAP30 stole shows, and MAP28 remained a crazy gimmick map. But Void? Despite being one level, it was one zany level that made perfect use of ZDoom's terrible jumping mechanics, the surrealism of rotating tunnels, trap-filled corridors, interesting ZDoom scripting, to the point where "it has to be seen to be believed" will be the only real argument. This being said, when there are baddies to battle, they are in places where they find good use, and the cyberdemon fight and heresiarch fight remain memorable to this day.
Honorable mention for Top 10 Infamous WADs: Nuts
Well, didn't wanna leave out the Infamous WADs section, didn't I? In any case, said infamous WADs clearly are infamous for any particular reason but above all else, Nuts has GOT to be the most replayable. Just wanna feel the pull of thousands of projectiles flying, all the enemies dropping like flies because they infight, all the spiderdemons and cyberdemons duking it out in the final room. As simple as Nuts is, it's a hallmark that paved way for the slaughterfest of the future. Of course it's my favorite of the Infamous WADs.
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