"Astrostein 2"

astro2.wad

Author(s):

Laz Rojas

Year of release:

1998

Map(s):

01 - 10

Engine:

Doom2

Date of review:

02/25/2007

Overall rating:

This is a total conversion with 10 maps, but I've only played maps 01 to 06, because I couldn't stand it any further.
I've already tried to play astro3.wad some time ago, but quit and deleted it, because it had substantial flaws and I've found it way too hard with as good as no health.
Astro2 is easier, with enough health and ammo, but it shows the same flaws. This is mainly a painful monotony in gameplay. The level of detail is very low and you're going your way through a copy and paste hell. It's playing on a large space station, but basically, there are only 3 kinds of rooms. So, you're opening doors over and over again and find the same rooms behind them, with the same monsters (mostly humans).
Nontheless, you can see that the author put much work into this wad. All graphics have been replaced, there are new weapons, new monsters and new sounds, and it's all quite consistent.
The funniest thing about this, is the space station being built by german Nazis, so you'll find a lot of german monster sounds and some really trippy german translations (I really can't imagine what a "Reise-Rohr" could be...)

Conclusion: an interesting, nice total conversion with an awfully sucking gameplay.