Imo a lot of people have an inaccurately positive view of TNT and a lot of other people have an inaccurately negative view of it (but probably not by as big a margin).
TNT isn't very good, but it has about the same positive qualities as other high profile 90s wads like doom2 and the first MM. You have to go into it expecting a lot of maps to outright suck, for the nice levels to be rough around the edges, and for the gameplay to be heavy on traps and exploration and kinda pointless-seeming on replaying. But there are nice levels/moments in TNT!
MAP01 -- a nice nostalgic map with "first level of a wad" written all over it, which is actually a quality that's a lot harder to achieve than you might think. I wish the whole of TNT was as convincing as this map.
MAP02 -- alright indoor/outdoor map. As playable-on-a-whim as many maps in doom2 imo. Also, for maximum accuracy you should play this in doom95, with the completely broken midi. A single droning note of gen midi electric guitar suits TNT a lot more than a driving bassline does.
MAP03 -- some nice parts, but overall kinda tiresome imo.
MAP04 -- I don't like this map much but you've got to admit it has a pretty neat concept.
MAP05 -- big outdoor space with hitscanners is not a great formula. Exploring the tunnels is alright.
MAP06 -- some nice chaingunner action, but I don't like the backtracking.
MAP07 -- the first room is more fun than the metal castle/huge pits stuff in the rest of the level.
MAP08 -- I hate this level and I hated it in the 90s too.
MAP09 -- pretty fun hitscan spam, holds up fairly well imo.
MAP10 -- feels like an early MM map with weaker opposition, which is fine by me.
MAP11 -- I like this map. It has a fairly cute setting and more low risk hitscan spam, and it's quite engrossing to explore the first time around.
MAP12 -- kind of big, empty, confusing. Not my favorite.
MAP13 -- reasonably good! Again, a quite nice setting. The outdoors is nice. IIRC progression is kind of tiresome though. The cross-shaped connecting room sucks joy from the map like a vampire imo.
MAP14 -- I like this partly due to nostalgia. Some parts lean towards unfun traps and damaging floor races. Great music imo.
MAP15 -- this is a pretty interesting setting. No other map in the iwads has this "building in the middle of a circle, where you start outside and can go around the whole building from the start" layout, but it's quite popular in other classic style wads (I think there's one or two in TVR for example).
MAP31 -- I liked it as a kid but I don't see the point now.
MAP32 -- it has an alright ending but overall feels tiresome to explore.
MAP16 -- Fun to explore the first time round, but not very inviting after that.
MAP17 -- This map has a cyber on solonet. That's the most memorable thing for me. I guess the outdoor bit at the start is quite evocative.
MAP18 -- plutonia set pieces in a big empty layout. I'm not a fan.
MAP19 -- the truck and the crate warehouse are really nice imo, but playing the level is kind of a drag.
MAP20 -- loved exploring this level for the first time as a kid, see no reason to revisit it now. Great music, but it doesn't loop very well, which is a shame.
MAP21 -- horrible brown ennui.
MAP22 -- messy, too bright, pretty silly. Not the outright worst map though.
MAP23 -- more brown uninviting stuff, but at least it's shorter than 21.
MAP24 -- looks like it might be interesting, but then it isn't.
MAP25 -- one of the less bad E3 maps.
MAP26 -- I liked this map as a kid, but now it's pretty much the epitome of what I don't like about cheesy hell settings.
MAP27 -- better than 21, not as interesting as 20.
MAP28 -- an alright plutonia-ish map. The beginning is hilarious on solonet.
MAP29 -- underwhelming last non-boss map. I guess it has some alright layout/connection ideas in the marble/greenbrick bit.
MAP30 -- I like the torch puzzle tbqh. Possibly the least bad leadup to an ios? It's still an ios though, and hence not very interesting.
In conclusion, TNT stands for That Nice Truck.
