Doom II - Realm of Chaos: 25th Anniversary Edition - MAP13: Bloodlands (Ultra-Violence 100%)

Hello again fellow Doomers, welcome back to another playthrough. It's time for quite a hefty commitment from me - a full megawad. Not just any megawad, but an expansive remaster of Realm of Chaos; a mid-1996 creation by The Macintosh Team (TMT) which was kind of sidelined and forgotten at that time. Spearheaded by Cammy, this updated and modernized version of RoC gives some much-needed love to the ancient megawad through "fresh new lighting, clearer progression, improved visuals, and beefier action. It comes pre-packaged with the custom sprites that were relegated to a side-wad in the original, and is scored by an all-new bespoke soundtrack". Best of all, it's 100% vanilla-compatible. That's an excellent pitch, so let's see how that facelifted old-school action fares!
Basic info
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IWAD: doom2.wad
Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (pistol start)
Map authors: Rob Berkowitz (aka DocBob) & Cammy
Music: "I'll Be Dead by December" by Cammy
Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
Compatibility level: 2 (Vanilla)
QoL mods: Colored Blood, Ultrawide Statusbar (included in WAD pack)
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Additional notes
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Let the blood flow I say. The immediate attack at the beginning with around 60 baddies is going to put you slightly off-balance but it's good practice for the next segments of the level. I associate the siltstone texture of the canyon with Arrival, and 'Bloodlands' does have a few striking similarities with some of Arrival's best moments, including a lot of vertical movement and very aggressive arch-viles. Sure it's nowhere near that level of anxious trekking, but you need to be pretty on point against the sorcerers and the meatballs. It does the slaughter lite thing very well, but the most impressive part of the level is actually the secret, completely optional fight up north against the mastermind, her offspring, and a lot of imps. I'm also super pleased with the extra option of grabbing another secret within the secret - the invuln - then immediately heading back to the fray without any pressure. In retrospect I didn't approach the imp wall as I should have (e.g. slow pushing with rockets or the plasma) and I nearly died because of it. Still, I pulled through. Awesome level.
P.S. The voodoo doll gimmick in front of the exit is very interesting. You can kill yourself by mistake if you shoot them, but sometimes you won't exactly die; instead, you'll reach 0 health but still be able to wander around the map like a ghost or an otherworldly spectator. Cool stuff.
Secret 1: 2:49
Secret 2: 6:54
Secret 3: 7:09
Secret 4: 11:44 (spider-mama fight starts at 11:34)
Secret 5: 11:51
Links
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WAD:
www.doomworld.com/forum/topic...
QoL mods:
Colored Blood:
www.doomworld.com/forum/topic...

[@liangseng7474]

Yes, Decino addressed that in his voodoo doll analysis video