To skip to the reviews: 1:43 Link to the wad is in the description!

This review made me feel old. I remember being around and talking to Erik Alm when he was actually making Scythe. I also remember helping out for the demopack for this, too, when it came out. Map28 was a cool concept back then and we were all impressed but we all also realized how awful it was to get a UV-Max on that one. I think Adam Hegyi gave it a thorough verbal trashing after getting a run on it. I wish I could remember what it was but it was definitely ended with, "never again." This is still one of my personal favorite Megawads to date.

I honestly have weird respect for "Run From It". There's something brilliantly trollish about its finetuning: being beatable enough to motivate the player to try again, but stingy enough to consistently make them fail right in front of the finish line. I also like teleporting gibs as a setpiece - they add a sinister flair to the time trial, as if you're trying to outrun your own demise.

One of my all time favorites. I actually love that it covers (almost) the entire skill spectrum - most wads pick a lane and stay in it, which I find repetitive. I feel like you were really fair to it, but for nostalgia/love of vanilla textures, I personally rate it an A overall. Your grade seems less skewed by nostalgia than mine though. Great video as always!

MAP30 took me ~150 attempts, ~16h across two days, to beat pistol start without saves on UV. The successful attempt took 1.5h in total. It is *by far* one of the most grueling and painful things I've achieved in gaming. I fucking love that map. Somehow, despite how it repeatedly clobbers you, it's never really dull, just infuriatingly oppressive. Technically I didn't solo it. During the successful attempt my spouse finished off a stray Lost Soul for me while I stole away for a toilet break. 😅

As soon as I saw this in my feed, I thought "Map 28 is the dunce." Scythe was the first PWAD I ever played, and honestly I've encountered very few maps since that I like as much as Fire and Ice. It's epic, non-linear, oppressive, and makes you feel like a god when you complete it. The Dark Souls of Doom maps, lol. Maybe it's just nostalgia, who knows.

Fire & Ice! AKA, the decino Dutch language april fools playthrough that everybody watched despite not speaking Dutch.

I think that Archviles fit so well into Unholy Church settings because their imposing frame and primary gesture, especially up on the alter, is reminiscent of a priest or a preacher during a some sort of intense or crazed sermon. It's actually quite fitting that their same aesthetics were brought back for Doom Eternal, considering the plot revolving around demanding humanity submit to the powers that be.

Since TNT is pretty important for you, ever heard of TNT Revilution, a sequel to the og the same way Plutonia 2 is

I'm playing through Scythe right now. The first couple of maps were the opposite of memorable, but I remember having fun. I don't mind easy maps when they flow quickly. Some of the episode 2 maps feel oh so very right to me. I think I just like maps that feel like Doom2. I haven't finished episode 3 yet, but I'm also liking it so far (have just finished Map23). The ramp up in difficulty is hard to swallow, though. Feels like two different map packs with different themes and difficulties were mashed together. I'm probably benefitting from not having played too many PWADs yet, but all in all Scythe feels fresh and exciting to me. Not a timeless classic, but even a mapping illiterate like me can tell this was made by someone with talent.

Run from it. *brings down command console* nextmap

This was the first custom wad I ever played and it set a huge impression on me. Had a great time blasting through all the levels, and I intend to try all the maps on nightmare soon :)

The fact that you play each WAD twice is quite crazy. Respects man. Hope burnout doens't get you tho.

I’m very pleased that this wad is being reviewed by you. Scythe and Scythe 2 are some of my favorite megawads and I’ve been looking forward to this.

You Suck is one of my all time favorite midi tracks. The usage is amazing to be honest

Personally, I’ve always liked maps 1 through 15 for their digestibility. If I’m having a bad day it feels great to set aside an hour to just run through them on UV and feel powerful. Individually they may be mediocre, but for single segment it becomes more than the sum of its parts.

I remember playing this wad for the first time while I waited to take my A+ cert in highschool. Maps 1-15 definitely weren't too notable. Map 21-30 was definitely the highlight of the pack and brutally hard for me at the time! It actually took me like a day to beat Fire and Ice even while save scumming!

"Scythe is like the ACT test, but for Doom" That's a perfect summary! Those last few levels really shook me grievously. I still remember playing through them in the middle of winter and it took me days!

I continue to be impressed by your excellent scripts and editing to keep it all lean no filler. I also continue to hope for your channel to continue to grow, you deserve it. Thank you for the hard work :)

Scythe remains my favorite wad of all time and something I recommend to everyone who wants to dip their toes into doom wads

I like when Doomguy is your reaction face.

Thanks dude this is the perfect channel for me. I am just getting into classic doom wads after playing the entirety of DOOM 1 and DOOM 2 inside of the computer on Doom Eternal and now I'm hooked

YEEE, I PASSED THE DOOM SAT! Otherwise, great review would have to agree with pretty much every grade. My biggest issue with Shythe is the abundance of skips, this makes it really easy for inexperienced players, to just skip a lot of the wad, anger can be finished in 10 seconds if you just do an archvile jump to the exit. and for map 30, you only need to get the yellow key, making players miss out on the rest of my personal favorite level. Once again, Dean of doom, you have made a masterpiece video, and I am very excited for any video you make in the future! Also yes, sythe 2 map 26, fun

And now, we found out just how much Scythe 2 outclassed it. It's kind of strange to look at in comparison, but pretty amazing level-wise to go from having some incredible standouts among mostly standard maps to mostly consistent masterpiece after masterpiece. Congratulations on beating Death.

I am astounded by why you don't have more subscribers, since your content is genuinely entertaining and informative.

I've finished sunlust and I'm currently on map 29 of scythe, yet your description of map 30 along with the midi gave me chills. Amazing content

The song you mentioned at 18:18 is from Rise Of The Triad (1995)'s "Game Over" Screen

Awesome reviews! I've really been enjoying your videos. I'm looking forward to Scythe 2 whenever you can beat map26!

18:40 You should do a top 10 hardest levels you've played on Dean's Series. That would an interesting video.👍 Besides that, love your channel🙌

I cannot tell right away what has changed, but your reviews became way more solid. Love em all, keep going with the great content!

I love how Scythe is pretty easy throughout the whole wad and then map30 just kicks ass without even expecting it. Great video =)

I can't wait for Valiant to be featured in the show.

- 'Walk in the Park' titled unironically... it's actually funny as 4shockblast made a "stroller" speedrun on this one to make the pun complete. :) - 'M/S Futura' time shenanigans plot and font name came back in an episode of Stargate Universe where they discovers the survivors of an interplanetary expedition who claim their civilization was founded two thousand years earlier by ship's crew and one of leading nations was named Futura.

Discovered your channel by total chance, glad I did, after watching the Going Down episode I binge watched all of them. Great job!

A good way to slowly end the day. Thanks for putting out high-quality content!

I personally loved "Run From It". The first time I played it, it freaked me the fuck out because I didn't know what was going on, or how voodoo dolls worked in DOOM. Yeah you can't get 100% kills and stuff but it was a good mix up late in the wad. Anyways, keep up the good work man.

Scythe is the first wad I learned the speedrun routing for and I fell in love with it. The short levels have such good speedrunning tricks it's like it was built for it.

It'd be interesting some time to see some sort of potpourri episode where a collection of wads with only like 1-3 maps each get reviewed back-to-back. There's a lot of interesting Doom experiences out there too short to talk about in a dedicated video of this format. Excellent work again, Dean - hope you're taking care of yourself.

Great review as always. I always get sad that extermination day will never get played or reviewed by most doom youtubers because it is made with brutal doom, but it is still probably the greatest looking and most detailed megawad I have ever played.

Mt pain you deserve more views and sub you put a lot of effort into your videos 😃

16:24 You dont like that? You should see dimensions map 32 Loooll

5:23 That's what I call a signature Dean of Doom moment

Introduction to your grading is good and straitforward

Scythe will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first ever mega wad I ever beat on uv pistol starts. I started scythe around the beginning of 8th and played on a school chrome book via some website. I would normally stay in the classroom during lunch and play scythe. Map 30 was completed on the last day of school and I was goddamn proud of myself for getting all the revenants to imp fight the cybers. I will forever hold this wad in high regards. Dean you also helped when I could not complete some of the maps cause my small brain can’t always finish a map.

Heck yea !!!! I’ve been waiting for this video...thanks for the content..keep up the great work

What a day - decino's analysis video, mt. pain's scythe video and karls's doom speedrunning video! keep it coming : )

DOOMWiki is always the best for secerts!

I came here from Decino! I love your style and layout. 👍 subscribed.

2:48 "This map introduces the chain gun to your arsenal" 6:39 "No, we still have not seen a super shotgun in this megawad" Played Scythe for the first time last week and this is one of the things that stuck with me. For the first chapter and a half, it's very cautious with the weapons it gives you. Almost reminiscent of modern AAA games where the player is slowly eased into the full arsenal. Definitely a unique take when most WADs take it for granted that you're familiar with all of Doom's iconic weapons.

Oh Scythe, the very 1st community-made mapset that I've ever played and the mapset that holds my personal crown achievement - 100%-ing M28. Starts easy and ends on a difficult note, last 10 maps (mainly M21-25) were pretty hard for 1 reason - *ABSOLUTE 0 ARMOR* and M22 was pretty frustrating to me. The rest of the final 3rd was managable (even M26 if you know what you're doing) and in M30 infighting is your best friend. Shoutouts to BigMacDavis for introducing me to this mapset.

I dig the Heretic and Hexen music used for the secret levels in this wad, surprised it isn't done more often in wads

i always get so excited to watch these their enjoyable

I really appreciate your ability to recognize Scythe's shortcomings which are obviously present if you don't have nostalgia goggles permanently affixed to your head. A lot of people even today think Scythe is just so outstanding, but the fact of the matter is that the combat is really sluggish, the levels often times don't look good, and the overall difficulty is lacking. Scythe 2 is leaps and bounds ahead of the original in every conceivable fashion and in my opinion is what cements Erik Alm's legacy as one of the all time greats in Doom mapping. In this day and age, there are dozens and dozens of community projects that are far superior to Scythe, and yet this wad constantly gets recommended to first timers as a great introductory PWAD. I think something like Valiant or even Going Down is a way better introduction even for more casual players than Scythe, but because of the legacy is has in the Doom community, it is often upheld regardless. I hope one day people can look at the original Scythe as more of a novelty to give context to the immense progress made with Doom community projects rather than an absolute must play. Just my two cents.

I had a hard time trying to understand the difficulty ratings for the first two episodes. Then I remembered that the .txt file recommended playing them with fast monsters on. I remember dying a lot, but it makes it way more fun, especially on the first map. Great work on this first season by the way, looking forward to season 2 and Scythe 2 "Death" 100% UV pistol start no saves =)

Map 12 music is from Descent 2, such a great soundtrack in that game! Love your channel btw. Been looking for a WAD reviewer on KZfaq and your reviews are so well made.

Glad I stumbled upon your channel!

I've just savescumed my way trough Fire and Ice UV... I will never recover from the emotional damage that has been brought upon me.

This is the best new Doom channel. I hope you'll do Sunlust and Hell Revealed !

Oh Sycthe... its bigger ♫♪ Love this wad, bc it have maps for all type of players. and that brootal map 30 bring me nigghtmares xd Keep going i love this series so much!

Fear 😳 or how I learned to stop worrying and love the BFG 😁 very nice set, you really have to hang on for some challenges !

This feels like deja vu for no reason.

I would love to see more of these "expert analysis" pings plz!

Map 12 (5:45)- I found that this map's aesthetics works really well with SoftFX by Muusi which is a hacky "brightmap" for vanilla Doom. Despite it being a hacky alternative to brightmaps (it edits the colormap to achieve the effect) it works well on WADs with vanilla textures/monsters. Even though I think glowing eyes and such can be a too much for brightmaps, I really liked how this dark and gloomy map looked with it enabled.

"you can avoid landing on a berserk pack but this is scythe and i don't wanna take my time" 9:10 this part killed me even tho I saw this video like 3 times and i didn't notice what you said that xD

Honestly run from it seems like a super cool concept that i'd like to see redone. (Reminds me of doom eternal's super gore nest ending). But 30 seconds is way to little time. If the was like 3-5 mins and involved killings monsters in a rush rather than running past everything i would have loved it.

I will give map 28 credit for being an entirely unique gimmick. Too bad it's a terrible gimmick, bringing to mind the old adage of "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Great review, and I look forward to Scythe II in the near-future!

They really got everyone until MAP30. That was a great flip to the things.

Cheers man, really diggin the series! 👍🏽 would love to see you do DOOM 64 🤘🏽

i dont know how youre that psychic but i was just looking for a review of scythe. keep up the good work

'Scythe' was one of the first PWADs I tried when I started to explore the Doom community's output. I rather enjoyed the quick & easy pace of the early maps & hope to make maps of a similar style one day. Whilst I did notice the significant difficulty spikes of the final episode initially, Map 26 still took me by surprise & it took me a few attempts since at the time, I didn't have much experience with such large combat encounters. Then there's Map 30. I was playing on 'Hurt Me Plenty' as usual and I still spent over an hour slowly picking my way through the hordes of that insane map. Overall I found it a bit of a slog (the music, whilst fitting, did not help matters) but 'Fire & Ice' is definitely something that will stick in my memory for a long time. Hearing that 'Scythe 2' is even harder in it's later maps has me wary of trying it.

2:47. The more important part is that you admit to your mistakes.

Scythe basically got me back into classic doom about a year ago, and by large extension is what brought me to find decino's channel and yours. I always felt like it was meant to create an experience similar to doom 1 but with doom 2 assets. It starts small, plays around with limited weapons and mosters and gradually expands its arsenal and challenge. The first half could be tackled by someone who's new to doom, and i think you judged it by the standars of a veteran. Your critics are absolutely valid, but i think the wad achieves what it sets out to. Still, since i played Scythe as a semi-beginner i might be biased on this aspect. I actually found the third episode more frustrating than fun and it made me hate cyberdemons with a passion. Fire and ice is a genius map but I can't bring myself to beating it even with savescumming, and i applaud you for doing it.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the map 18 midi is Those Chosen by the Planet from FF7.

nice vid again!

I'm waiting on COVID test results so seeing this is pretty good to see.

"I usually dislike Slaughter Maps" oh just wait until you play Sunlust son

14:54- you can also simply strafe-run over the gap you start next to, which takes you directly to the cyberdemon fight. this may have been intended considering m29's bfg secret also requiring a strafe-run.

I always like revisiting these older Dean of DOOM videos after playing the megawads myself, just so I can compare my overall thoughts to Mtpains

If you're not a great player, I must be terrible :P the early maps of this wad kicked my arse a bunch. Glad I started here, not with a really hard wad Thanks for inspiring me to actually try some custom map packs

Scythe is a good sampling of the various types of user made levels.

Cool video

I think this is the first unofficial megawad I played after seeing it in a speedrun. I quite liked it after only playing the base game, Plutonia and TNT. Back then, the concept of slaughtermaps was unknown to me and I found the last episode overwhelming and somewhat unfun, though I beat it with abusive safe scumming and a badge of Fire and Ice. I picked it up again years later with the addition of complex doom and with epic enemies, the first two episodes were a lot more interesting and challenging, though I don't remember playing the 3rd episode again. Overall, I do have fond memories of it with less "ewww" moments than Plutonia, though it definitly can't compete with newer wads.

SCYTHE difficulty very smoothly and with no rush goes higher and higher, until out of nowhere jumped in to space!! I remember to don't have any major problems until map 26 just smosh me, and I admit it make this MegaWad very memorable. And i have opposite feelings about map 28, i think it's very unique and cool, but it was frustrate how perfect you have to be. Some small space for mistake would help

It's interesting that you were able to do maps 20-25 comfortably, which I seriously struggled at, but, you had a hard time with map 26, which went a lot smoother for me. I know you are a better doom player than me (I mean, you cleared the last 7 maps of Alien Vendetta which I still havent been able to do properly), so, I thought map 26 would be easier for you. XD Yeah, I dont like map 28 either. I still havent been able to clear it without using cheats. Absolutely do not like this map. I also appreciate that the mapmaker didn't go for the icon of sin in map 30, both in Scythe and Scythe 2. Good luck on your future Dean of doom episodes. Ribbiks' wads are gonna be difficult, but you will also enjoy them a lot, whenever you get to try out his wads. Thanks for this episode. Have a nice day.

Oh, one of wads I wanted to see playthrough with commentaries!

I played Scythe like 4 times (one with vainilla and the other with mods, and I normally play on ultra-violence). And I only managed to pass Map 30 playing with Doom exp that is a gameplay mod kinda op for slaughtermaps that allow you to get some extra resources. The last map is definitely insane even if you're not playing with pistol start, I don't even imagine play foward without saving alone.

Hell yeah it's the Dean of Doom.

I’d be very curious to see you try the bleed out mod I made videos/semi put together (idea wise from a previous Hexen mod) with this. Scythe is nuts with it!

In my opinion, Scythe is the best map pack to hand to someone who wants to start getting into custom wads. The first episode is simple but fast paced, the second episode will offer a bit more of a challenge than whats offered in vanilla doom, and the third episode will be a wake up call to anyone who hasn't seen a slaughter map before. Map 26 was my introduction to the slaughter genre, as i'm sure it was to many people. All in all, Scythe ain't the best but it's a classic and a damn good starting point.

I knew Scythe II's Map 26 Death was gonna give you problems. I can't beat it myself can't wait to see how you rank that one. Map 26 Fear of Scythe is my all time favorite map in the megawad. When I managed to win from a pistol start I felt so unbelievably satisfied and proud of myself because that was the hardest map I have ever beat at the time so it holds special value to me. Edit: Fear is no longer the hardest Doom map I have ever beat. My new best is Plutonia 2's Go 4 It from a Pistol start on UV. I became a broken man that day it was deflating to play from my skill level.

I personally didn't mind Run From It when I played, but then again, I wasn't playing on UV, trying to get 100% kills or secrets, or going from a pistol start, so I can see why it would get aggravating.

soo right now you're fighting through last five Scythe 2's maps for the first time?? HAVE A GREAT DAY

I really enjoyed Map26 it took me like a week to beat it with out saves, but it felt awesome when i did!

Watching this review and realizing a friend of mine played Scythe 2 but dropped it at like map 11 I decided to beat it on UV with saves. Death was honestly not as hard as advertized, it's low monster count is fine to deal with as long as u dont actually try killing the Afrit tho ig u can do it the way the UVMAX speedrun does it. Waiting for the Scythe 2 episode to compare thoughts on maps.

Don't cry because (the video) it's over, smile because (The new episode is out after 11 days man you have no idea how much i have been waiting for a new episode since the last one, i never waited for new uploads of any (lmao i accidentaly wrote anime instead of any) youtuber like his :) ) it happened

That final map.. i do appreciate it's not an icon of sin map, but holy hell did me and my friend started to hate it when we got to it in crispy doom. We absolutely were not prepared for it and it took us around 2 hours to finish it. Fear was fun but this one was traumatizing and agonizing. I suppose it's a memorable way to end the wad.

i was able to beat fire and ice in a single segment pistol start no saves... however after i learned the map itself... and the amount of infighting... i did a single run where i left my game running and walked away 3 different times... it took 8 hours for a single run. the ammo scarcity was the real issue i found. like you said however, each key allows a safety infight party where you cause it to start and just walk away come back and see its all done

I never care about 100% kills on this wad, but I had a lot of fun with it. If you want to do speedruns this wad is perfect to practice.

13:52 "My name is Not Important!"

One thing I actually liked about Scythe was how it started slow but had a MASSIVE difficulty spike in the 3rd episode. Granted, that's just because I like when anything has a slow but sure progression that starts off from nothing but goes INSANE by the end. Scythe 2 was a little different in that it didn't start off *as* easy, but since I played it after Scythe 1, then I went in with the prior knowledge of how Scythe 1 played out. And seeing how it had 6 distinct episodes and a much faster (and arguably MUCH more potent) difficulty spike, it felt like it upped the ante even past the level of the end of Scythe 1. Edit: As of very early December 21st, 2023, I can safely say I have also beat Scythe 1 while pistol starting each level.