While Bella's text file description of your mission is unusual enough to be cool, and the opening screen has a little speech to make your blood freeze, this 10-level megawad is nothing more than a nightmare of teeth, claws, gunfire and explosions. Not a bad proposition - unless the execution is poor.
I'm not going to spend an hour complaining about map makers or different types of map - but I have to say that the Doom Community is not a very nice place and I am trying to avoid getting flamed. Suffice it to say that Bella is not of a style I am happy to play and I didn't enjoy it for more than a few minutes.
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Difficulty: Extreme (UV)
This is mixed up with the Gameplay aspect. In my mind, Bella is too hard and its maps feel too inconsequential for me to enjoy. Did I say hard? I meant really hard.
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Gameplay: Poor
I felt that the gameplay suffered for a single reason: invisible monsters. LOTS of them. Often appearing in play when they are surrounding the player so you can't avoid taking damage. The maps are designed to be played through as an episode and if you start each map with a pistol you are in serious trouble. I basically lost interest after dying to an invisible monster for the 35th time.
Hell Revealed and its sequel are more frightening and, I don't know, more interesting. As an average player I simply can't recommend Bella to anyone except jaded players who are dying for some pain.
Highlights: None, unless you're a Doom God, or sadistic.
Lowlights: There seems to be little difference between the toughness on the HMP or UV settings. Although there are notably less monsters on Hurt Me Plenty there are still enough invisible monsters and Arch-Viles appearing right behind you to spoil the fun.
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Aesthetics: Poor
I can sum this up in a few words, but to be honest the people who want to play wads like Bella don't care about the presentation. For those of us who do the maps range from average to ugly. Theme clashes run rampant on several maps. There are large, empty areas with no attractive features. The light level is constant throughout the maps although there are some nice looking areas of shade.
The maps are basically an excuse to fight plenty of monsters.
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Overall Score: 3/10
Pros:
- Well, the title music is scary.
Cons:
- Too hard for the average player.
- Maps are generally ugly.
- Poor music replacements.
- Irritating use of invisible monsters.
- Does not appear to support difficulty levels.