Its a curious thing that so many people have found success or at least fairly rewarding results with the more modern conveniences of the GZdoom engine in the last ten or fifteen years or so, but that doesn't mean it always yields the best results. Vertical-ity had always been the devil's bane to poor Doom and Doom 2, but now that we have the ability.. its spent instead on making enormous levels wider and more empty. Don't get me wrong, the nuts and bolts of something like Hedon work- but the levels do not. As engrossing as it is to find yourself wandering back and forth wondering what oddly specific part of the map you didn't find exactly everything you need to progress for a solid fourty-five minutes is, its also quite frustrating to say the least. Its very curious that as good looking as Hedon can be, the actual style of the pixel-art in question is rather bland, even amateurish to the point of looking bad at times or goofy. The sound effects are also a bit middling, but the actual combat can be satisfying, but also overwhelming as the AI is ultimately still awful and absolutely has to swarm you to create any sense of challenge. I got stuck several times on very long and huge levels that weren't well made. I don't really care how many doom mods people praise, this one certainly isn;t a diamond in the rough, and its in fact not much fun to actually play. The first level is extremely labyrinthine and since so many areas look practically identical (once again rather odd for a modern Doom mod) its easy to get mixed up. Theirs also not much feedback besides random enemies spawning or the very obnoxious sound of air blowing signalling that their is perhaps another room next to you that is hidden. Time spent trying to finish levels often yielded easter eggs or secret rooms that already deviate you from the task at hand- as well as making the map even larger. Not enough focus or interesting things happening in this one.
