DBP64: The Vast Silence
By Doomer Boards Community - 14 Maps
Format: Limit Removing
[Download]
Started: February 14th 2026
Finished: February 15th 2026
Status: Completed
A big issue that comes up when playing Doomer Boards Project wads is that they rely pretty heavily on a good theme to succeed. The big variety of mappers and general lack of cohesive planning between them means that they never quite have a natural sense of progression and tend not to end on a conclusive high note, so if the theme isn't at least interesting and fun to look at then the mapset is pretty dead on arrival. That is to say, DBP64 is very interesting and fun to look at! The Doom 64 versions of all the guns and enemies have always looked cool to me, they're not all perfect but it makes for a unique style you rarely get to see elsewhere, so having a wad built from the start to look like Doom 64 is already pretty neat. There's even some totally new sprites for enemies that were missing in Doom 64 like the archviles and chaingunners. They look a bit scrungly compared to the official sprites but they fit in well enough, and it's far better than the alternative of not having them appear at all. The Vast Silence also does a surprisingly good job when it comes to atmosphere, at least earlier on. You're kept to very small scale fights with lower tier guns, and the atmospheric tracks are on average more interesting to listen to than they are in something like Quake. There's still hints of melody in there, and do wonders to keep the tension up without feeling weird to listen to during active fights or getting annoyingly boring after too much time. This aspect tapers off the farther in you get, and admittedly the later maps that are more hell themed than techbase-y don't succeed as well on the visual level, but the novelty of this wad does give it a leg up over other DBPs.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Map - Map 6: "Compression Test"
Least Favorite Map - Map 13: "Stigmata Martyr"