Cool story bro news - MacenWolf mod for Wolfenstein 3D

Hi there! Here's a slew of mapsets for you to enjoy. And you will enjoy them, because they're all cool.

We begin with a twofer by Vikram Raj, an author who had already shown up during our Mac adventures - he made 2keys and Vik's Fun House, both very small releases (single map only if memory serves well). This time it's an entirely bigger fish to fry though, as Cool 1st Encounter levels and Cool 1st Encounter levels 2 clock in at 13 (though one of them is fake) and 12 maps respectively, for a neat total of 25. As the first one is dated December 1996 and the second one - March 1997 (as far as these timestamps can be trusted), I believe we can see a mapper's evolution on display. Starting from some rather unsightly and irregular beginnings, we slowly progress towards more structured designs. While mapping in the first set varies a lot as Vikram is looking for his identity, the second mapset is more consistent, with slightly smaller, tighter floors, with more symmetry, secret passages and somewhat more careful enemy positioning. Both sets are worth exploring, though to me, the second one represents a higher mapping achievement.

Let's move on to less expansive, but not necessarily less impressive releases. Cool Level and Another Cool Level don't have any known authors, but they're presumably made by the same person. They're frankly pretty simplistic (especially the latter), but reasonably challenging in their simplicity. You don't get swarmed and overwhelmed by guards at any point, which is not bad.

Cool floor-Hilters mansion is actually two floors, both of uncertain authorship again. The first one is pretty small and basic, but has some really nasty traps to watch out for (apparently the author hates people who look for secret passages). The second one is basically just a showdown with the Man himself.

With cool ones we at least know the mapper: it's Xenocide 4. After a very small and brief introductory level, the scenario develops into two other, somewhat more meaty floors. A couple encounters in there might be tricky if you stand your ground instead of retreating and handling enemies at the chokepoint, but overall it's about as direct as a punch to the face.

And then there's COOLELO (authorship unknown), the only scenario (only today, that is) to make use of Third Encounter. It's a single map that pits you against a horde of enemies and no ammo, weapons or health (except for some 1ups later on) to handle then with... and when you do get some nice armaments, they're no longer really useful unless you want to go for a bonus fight of sorts. Generally speaking, the map is made of linear one- or two-tile wide passages, not the most thrilling stuff I've seen to be honest.