Eye Juice (via UZDoom)

This has a really strong start—8 levels of tight, cohesive action through pretty and diverse urban environs in an over-arching spy thriller chase sequence. After that, it loses focus. You just sort of go from place to place for 5 levels and, with the exception of the surreal interlude at the Grand Budapest Hotel and a kinda-rough Half-Life pastiche, none of them are really as interesting as the city levels. Luckily the WAD comes back to the city for a great 5-level finale. The final boss is neat, but it's really the leadup that got me back on board—a manic escalation with a brilliant sense of style.

Some specific issues with the style and design: The graphics are really characterful and the levels intricate and full of detail, but certain decisions make ammo counters hard to read, projectiles hard to spot, and automap semi-useless. That intricacy also makes it much easier to snag on terrain, which is never good for you in a movement-based shooter.

But also, some specific praise: the secrets are generally really well-done and it was more fun to look for all of them than in classic DOOM because they're much more reliant on the semantics of the textures and modelling (for instance, in the mall level, two secrets are hidden behind unique empty-shelves textures) rather than just the original game's texture misalignment. I also really like the use of rasterised renders of cel-shaded 3D models used for enemies and I think some weapons. Finally, every level is very clearly designed with pistol start in mind, but the campaign can also be played progressively… with one or two exceptions the encounters are all really well-posed for the space you're given and the tools you have.