Rusty Drill
By A2Rob et al. - 32 Maps
Format: Boom
[Download]
Started: September 15th 2026
Finished: September 16th 2026
Status: Abandoned
I still haven't played Scythe or Scythe 2 yet, but this is now the second A2Rob-created Scythe tribute wad I've played! Rather than following in the footsteps of Machete (essentially Scythe 2 The Way A2Rob Did), Rusty Drill is intended as a general tribute to Erik Alm and all 3 of the Scythe wads (Scythe, Scythe 2, and Scythe X), but despite not having played any of those it kinda utterly fails at this. Being a community project it was inevitable that things wouldn't quite stack up, but aside from some maps fitting the planned vibe of "nice, short, punchy maps", nothing here feels especially Scythe-like, nor do they fully cohere together even when viewed outside that lens. I do appreciate slightly mixing up the episode theming at least, E1 is the usual low-tech urban city vibe, while E2 flings you far into the future, and I GREATLY appreciate E3 wanting to ditch the usual hell aesthetic to instead do a voidscape theme instead. Not that there aren't any highlights, the first episode is a perfectly cromulent set of techbases with a surprise appearance of MtPain27 contributing Map 6 "Power Tools", and "User Manual Not Included" makes for a nice episode finale. E2's future setting opens with a total slam dunk of a map by A2Rob, "2007 AD" comes out swinging and is easily one of the best maps in the set, though it's immediately followed by the complete mess that is "Yuck Factory" with a pretty horrendous original midi and some very questionable design. The secret maps here are... odd. Map 31 "Savage Garden" isn't even a Scythe tribute, it's a reference to Joshy's Map 23 from Speed of Doom of all things, and Map 32 "Watching the Abyss" is just completely and utterly abysmally WHY. It's an excruciatingly difficult and finnicky platforming map that doesn't even work properly in UZDoom because the big triangle conveyors immediately fling you to the edge of the map, but even if it DID work correctly it'd still be a disaster. It's nearly 30 minutes of making tiny precision jumps on thin platforms over an inescapable pit in an ugly dark abyss with brightly colored rectangular sticks everywhere, with mini conveyor belts added in later to make things even more frustrating. On lower difficulties there's earlier exits you can take, alongside one at the start to just skip the map completely, but having a free skip button isn't an excuse for this map being wildly out of place considering what this wad was supposed to be. Apparently this map used to be in the 29 slot rather than the 32 slot, but it REALLY should've just been cut from the lineup completely and replaced with something else. It grinds the experience to a halt no matter HOW skilled the player is, is obnoxiously frustrating to deal with, and completely misses the point of Rusty Drill being a Scythe tribute project in the first place. Much like D2ICO's "Blur Affinity", this is a map made by someone aiming for the completely wrong audience and not understanding the kind of project he was mapping for. Even as a fan of platforming I did NOT enjoy my time finishing it all the way, and only did so out of pure spite and to prove a point. The rest of the future maps are MUCH more tolerable, DFF's "Orbital X-09" and Cannonball's "Blue Alert" are both fantastic outings from two of my favorite mappers, though E2 ends on a bit of a bum note with "StarStruct Inc. Center", which is obvious newbie work that sticks out like a sore thumb. Hebonky's "Homecoming?" is a very neat way to introduce the final episode though several of its cool tricks are also broken in UZDoom. After that point though, what even happened? The next 3 maps are all berserk-focused mostly tyson maps, all with... a hell theme??? What happened to the voidscape thing? They're all kinda terrible too, and it's around here where Rusty Drill really lost me. Map 24 "Damnatio" is EASILY the worst of these three, it's cramped, ugly, and has no sense of proper combat design, just throwing random nonsense at you with little regard for fun. Then next up is... a Sunder tribute???? Now you're not even operating on the same wavelength. The first few bits of this map are fine if completely out of place, but then it just vomits 100ish enemies on you in a mostly empty room with your only extra resources beyond one free Megasphere and a fully loaded BFG being BEHIND the giant wall of enemies in some hard to notice tiny hallways. Amazing. Even with that this final fight is STILL an excruciating nightmare, and is completely and totally unfit to be in a wad like this. Then we have another myolden map, and from there... no. The remaining maps in the set are: A setpiece oriented slaughtermap, Run From It 2, another long slaughtermap, and then an HOUR LONG third slaughtermap. No. Just. No. What happened to "The goal of this project is to make nice, short, punchy maps. Emphasis on SHORT. Maps should only take 3 - 5 minutes to beat, 7 - 8 minutes max."?????? Sure I'm right at the end, but I have better things to do with my life than slog through the rest of this. I already should've called it quits before the third episode. Rusty Drill is potentially the WORST community project I've ever played. It starts out ok, a little bland and full of newbie maps, but by the last third mappers clearly lost the plot on what the hell they were doing. These maps aren't short or punchy or Scythe tributes whatsoever. The tiny glimmers of quality in here are drowned out by an ocean of complete disasters. Do not play this wad. I feel bad that A2Rob has his name attached to this as project lead because he deserves better than this.
Rating - ⭐⭐½
Favorite/Least Favorite Map skipped because the WAD wasn't completed.
Consolation prize to Map 11: "2007 AD", A2Rob continues to be amazing.