“Overall, an excellent megawad” was what I wrote in my notes from six years ago. My opinion has changed drastically. While Whitemare 2 frequently shows off interesting and creative bits of mapping, I found myself, even more frequently, being frustrated. There were a few good levels, but often times I grew to dislike the level I was playing.

The bigger levels were what really crushed my spirit. They were often swamped with enemy encounters to the point it was exhausting. These levels could also be very confusing on where to go next. Many levels also required annoying platforming. Grievances were peppered in to this mapset. The levels with the big

Still… there’s a lot here that’s interesting. Map 13 uses a large maze to represent the player losing their sanity. It’s annoying, but stands out as thematic level design. The big city levels are great to look at, including Map 15– Floating World. They’re visually sharp even if the spectacle works against them in how big they are and how long it takes to get around.

I might have had a better time if I wasn’t playing with the Whitemareguy weaponset from Final Doomer but I think a lot of my issues would stick even if I played vanilla or chose a more conventional weapon mod. There are a couple levels here that should be extracted and enjoyed by the community as classics, though.