Catching Up - Celestin's review thread (now playing: Obituary)

A somewhat linear map that sends you to find two keys inside a network of caves and techbases. The blue one is not far away, but the red key route is longer and more interesting. I like the part where you drop down, land on a super shotgun and get attacked by revenants and turret cacodemons. The final fight locks you in a room and sends a horde of monsters. I half-expected a cyberdemon to arrive, but it's just an archvile, some mancubi and hitscanners. Another good map.

Undying is an open map in a vein of Industrial Zone, with a network of buildings and walkways over a lake of sludge. Bring a pen and paper, because your task is to find a solution to a riddle that unlocks the exit: a combination of eight pegs, either red or blue. 

I was worried when I saw a cyberdemon here, but he got killed for some reason - not that I'm complaining. I like the series of fights around the red key and the ending, where you're given a BFG to fight a teleporting mob of spectres and an archvile handler, but the map, owing to its size and sparse population, dragged a bit too much for my liking.

A brisk map where the majority of enemies will kill each other. It's three arenas that you need to traverse one after another and then return, fighting several archviles that will revive dead monsters if not dealt with first. The main challenge is health placement. Medikits are only available in the first room and the access to it is blocked once you leave it. I like this one as a breather.

The final map of the wad takes some ideas from MAP06 - it's another string of platform over damaging lake. It's also much bigger, making faraway snipers even more a threat, especially several towers with respawning enemies that are active until the very end. I think the most noteworthy part is the red key route: first clearing out a village of revenants, then taking on four archviles in a maze-y room. The blue key, on the other hand, are three similiar rooms with monsters of escalating threat levels. Nothing special here.

Both heys unlock a central building, a towering structure the purpose of which I can't deduce. The cacodemon cloud that guards its entrance was the second thing in the map that stuck with me. Inside, there's a BFG and a series of easy fights, especially if you manage to find an invulnerability sphere. This rewards the player with something new, the grey key, used exclusively to unlock the very last fight of Unwelcome.

It's an Icon of Sin, staged in a dark cave without an automap. Your goal is to feel around this place and find four switches that reveal the corrupted heart to blast into pieces. To my surprise, this was one of the better IoS fights I've played in a while. It doesn't vomit a volley of monsters, the space is large enough to navigate and if you want to cheese it, don't fire a shot, as it seems the Icon is triggered by sound. I've beaten it on my first attempt, something that doesn't happen with encounters like this often.

Still, there's something unfocused here. The map overall is large and, aside from some specific parts, sparsely populated. The fights itself aren't a challenge, with the exception of the revenants on the way to the red key. It feels like it was supposed to be this epic finale, but I spent most time running around and taking out some random foes.

I don't like abusing words like "classic" or "iconic", but come on, guys, it's E1M1 - a map remade in every possible engine and referenced by numerous mappers. In this month alone, I've played two Hangar homages: DeFrag (MAP16 from Doom 404) and Layers of Time (MAP32 from Sign of Torment). If that's not iconic, I have no idea what is.

Anyways, Hangar. It's a bit of a tech demo, demonstrating what Doom can do, especially the verticality. Stairs, lifts, elevated platforms - this must have been impressive for someone who first played this in 1993. It also introduces a number of mechanics that are a staple of mapping nowadays: it teaches the player how the autoaim works by placing an imp above the player, uses damaging floors that can hurt the player if not careful and puts an explosive barrel next to enemies, so they can be turned into a pile if gibs with some well-placed shots. Speaking of enemies, it's mostly hitscanners with a couple of imps, they are hardly a threat, especially when you can get a shotgun in the very first room.

One thing to mention is the soundtrack, almost as iconic as the map itself. "At Doom's Gate" is a classic, getting you pumped for action.

Nuclear Plant has more stuff to do and I think it teaches one of the most important lessons in Doom: to look for secrets. Spotting a discoloured wall in the starting room will reward you with a backpack and a switch that opens a courtyard. It holds a supercharge and the best friend of every E1 player: the chaingun. It tears through zombies and imps. Another secret lets you ambush an ambush next to the exit, which is a reward I've always enjoyed. One thing I don't think I understand is the computer maze. Sure, it's a recognisible part, but it's also completely optional and the reward are some secrets that you'll likely won't need. Still, good map paired with a good midi.

Toxin Refinery is a great showcase of the raw power the player has over basic monsters. The corridors here are stuffed with trash to perforate with a chaingun, blow with explosive barrels or take out several enemies at once with a shotgun blast. It's rich with secrets, giving you enough health and ammo to enjoy the slaughter.

I think this is the first map that actively employs traps, like the blue key room, which goes dark and opens a closet with imps. Or the fight by the secret exit. Speaking of which, it's surprisingly complex, involving a nested secret. I also have to spotlight the midi, "Dark Halls" gives off a vibe of subtle confidence, like knowing nothing can stop you.

So, the very first secret map of Doom and it's definitely an odd one. Very quickly (read: in Episode 2) mappers started to use the secret slots for levels that are, in one way or another, special. Military Base is, well, a techbase. The central square with a cage of imps will drain your health and ammo, as enemies from surrounding rooms converge here. It forces you to be aggressive and attack, instead of standing here camping (which resulted in a shameful death, the only one I've suffered in E1).

Command Control is a forgettable map. The blue key room would be an interesting trap if you wouldn't be able to kill the imps from the outside and the maze that ends with the yellow key is just boring. One thing I do like is the open-ended nature of this map, you are given more liberty with routing than previous levels.

Due to its limited monster and weapon variety plus a single author, E1 quickly developed its style of high bodycount action, plentiful and helpful secrets and a distinct visuals. Phobos Lab is a solid map with some cool setpieces, like the fight behind the yellow door or the ending in a dark, strobing room.

A large waste treatment plant with ton of monsters to kill, secret passages to help with navigating the map and some fights than 1993 players might have seen as overwhelming. I'm talking about the red key ambush or the mass of demons by the exit. The last one is no joke even today, it's easy to get cornered here if you're not careful. Good map, even if a bit to unwieldy to navigate.

All but one maps of E1 were made by Romero and, due to a limited enemy and weapon variety, feature a similiar style of combat. Not that I'm complaining, because I think it works. Computer Station is E1 design philosophy condensed into a single map. There are lots of weak monsters to kill, secrets that gives you useful rewards or allow you to approach certain fights from different angles. You'll be backtracking a lot, a task not made easier by opening monster closets on your way back.

I haven't talked about E1's visual, but I see it as a strong aspect of the episode. It's varied and colorful, but at the same time, it all fits together.

Well, it's clear as day it's not a Romero's map. You won't find the massacre of weak demons here, the monsters here are the tankiest E1 allows: pinkies, spectres and a pair of barons. Have fun hacking at them with a shotgun. The map also has a more simplistic design and texture usage, this all stick out in an otherwise consistently good episode. If anything, it kicks of a boss fight curse that haunts the majority of iwads. One thing I do like is "Sign of Evil", a more moody track than thn the rest of E1's soundtrack.

First things first, I love the midi. "I Sawed the Demons" has to be one of my favourite iwad tracks, one that makes you feel like a hero rampaging through Hell. 

E2's visual theme is "corrupted techbase", where familiar human elements merge with demonic weirdness, like the inverted cross that hurts you or a marble room. But also, it doesn't look as good as E1, with its less sophisticated geometry and repeated texture usage. The combat is also slower, with more pinkies and the introduction of a cacodemon. If anything, it's a continuation of Petersen's E1M8 and a sign of things to come.

One of my favourite maps of Doom 1 and I think I'm not the only one here. I introduces a berserk pack, which is a true powerhouse against imps and occasional pinkies. 

The crate maze you start in is probably the most memorable sight of the map, but Containment Area quickly turns into a combination of machinery with unknown purpose and infernal architecture. The whole map gives you a lot of routing possibilities, in no small part thanks to abundant secrets.

Refinery is a bizzare map, but not in a positive sense. There are just so many strange design decisions I don't understand. Like the three cacodemons locked in a pen right by the start that are completely useless. Or the room with a grid of rising and lowering flesh pillars. Or two secrets that are just passageways between rooms. At least the action is solid, other than the dark hallway with imps and lost souls.

I don't like how the map looks, it's a mess of clashing themes and the midi works better as an intermission theme than a level background.

I have very mixed feeling here. For once, the scale of Deimos Lab is a nice change after otherwise cramped previous maps. The haunting midi is great, a totally different atmosphere unlike anything else in the game. There are many secrets here and optional rooms to explore. Some provide interesting encounters, like the room where you can activate a crusher to help you with the monsters here.

On the other hand, it's sparsely populated and I felt the ammo balance to be rather tight (a secret berserk pack helped a lot). Also, the texture work isn't impressive, especially the overuse of hexagonal walls. This gives the map a very rough look.

Another uneven map. First of all, I love the optional content, you can reach the regular exit without visiting large portions of the map. Then there is the secret exit, which isn't hard to find, if you commit to experiencing everything this map has to offer. It's also guarded by the hardest fight of the map, where you teleport into a tiny room with lost souls around you. 

At the same time, Command Center is drags a lot, especially since you'll have to backtrack, searching for the secret exit. Then there is the issue of combat. I can write a lot about the shortcomings of Doom 1's combat that its sequel fixed: the limited monster variety, the lack of mid-tier enemies, overall grindiness etc. E2M5 is where those problems are really starting to get noticible. There are a lot of barons and cacodemons, no rocket launcher and the plasma rifle is in an out of way corner of the map. I really miss E1's brisk action.

The E2's secret map consists of three rooms: one with four barons, another with ten cacodemons and the exit. Someone who plays continuous will likely enter this one with a fat stack of cells, negating any challenge. Pistol-starters are expected to make the demons infighting and finish off the rest. 

Sandy sees this as his best level, but I can't share his enthusiasm. 

Let's get the negatives out of the way. Halls of the Damned showers you with light amplification goggles, meaning the map will look bad. Also, fighting in the dark is the main point of the map's standout encounter and I really don't get what's the point in allowing to trivialise it like this.

Aside from this, I like E2M6 a lot. Unlike you average Petersen's map, Halls of the Damned is much tighter with its monster usage, assaulting you with lots of pinkies and providing tools to kill barons quickly. The fake yellow door exit is a memorable trap, quite dangerous one if you're low on health. It's a good map, one of the better ones in the episode.

Spawning Vats feels like a collage of previous E2 maps. There's a crate warehouse, nukage pools, those weird corridors with strobing floors, just to name a few. Like other maps of this episode, it's filled with monsters you can punch to death, a task made easier with a pair of invulnerability spheres. It's an enjoyable map to play and find all the references to Sandy's previous levels.

Underwhelming boss fight number two - shoot the cyberdemon until it dies. I don't have much more to say, it's hardly a challenge for a modern player. The map looks even less sophisticated than E1M8 or E2M9 and passes in a flash. Still, I find Episode 2 to be solid overall. Not as good as E1, but I still had fun.

A short map with a small monster count, it would have been completely forgettable if it had more shells. Seriously, the lack of ammo and a narrow tunnel of pinkies makes this one longer than it needs to be. 

A surprise hit in a generally weak Episode 3. Slough of Despair is an hand-shaped maze of rocks, where monsters attack you from every side. This is truly a map where you need to have eyes all around your head. The "fingers" of the hand are not a fun, it's mostly enemies attacking you from the front, but I'll still say it's inoffensive. The midi is also one I like a lot.

This looks more like a E2 map, don't you think? Pandemonium is a techbase of clearly human origin, merely corrupted by hellish influences. It's one of those maps that are much better with foreknowledge, if you have no idea where the guns are, you'll be running frantically, trying to outrun the initial group of foes, while likely triggering even more. Which, to be honest, is not a bad concept. If you look for secrets, you'll find a lot of useful stuff, including the wad's first BFG. Not a bad map, I just don't understand why it isn't in Episode 2.

I would say this is a forgettable map, but it's cryptic progression will stick in your brain. Not for the best reasons, but still. 

This map is just strange. There's a room with switches than I open some walls, a corridor of damaging floor with a trail of medikits and a secret that holds nothing. At least the fights are good, House of Pain throws a lot of enemies at you, but is also generous with power-ups. 

This feels more like a dungeon crawl than an action game, a gameplay style I know was used a lot in the early days of Doom, but fell out of style.

I don't like this map. The central courtyard where 7 teleporters take you to its centre and only one allows you to progress is an obvious flaw. Even if you ignore this, Unholy Cathedral is still slow and confusing to navigate, while also lacking bigger fights that Inferno's other maps provide.

Everyone sees this as "that FIREBLU map", but I think it's something more. Mt. Erebus is the Doom's first sandbox map, where you have a large area to explore in search of the blue key while gearing up in the process. It's quite fun, actually, as there are plenty of power-ups if you're willing to search the lava lake that surrounds the map. Just save a rocket if you want to reach a secret exit.

When I first reached this map, I thought my game bugged and I was replaying E3M1. Warrens proudly launches a tradition of creating secret maps where an earlier level is considerably beefed-up. Too bad the first half of Warrens is literally just Hell Keep with all its issues. Anyway, once you reach the exit, it instead opens up the walls, revealing a cyberdemon that guards the blue key. I guess this was a shock in 1993, but in 2023 he is a joke with tons of rockets around.

The return trip to the starting room throws more monsters at you, but my favourite part is a shotgunner ambush at the end - you won't see hordes like this in Doom 1. Warrens is a solid map, but it's sadly dragged down by its source material.

This one is just bad. A large, sprawling and ugly labirynth, where your biggest threat are everpresent hurtfloors. The enemies are sparse and easy to outrun if you're out of ammo, but navigating this place is a challenge. Like, at one point you get the red key and it opens up a bunch of tiny rooms with teleporters, they all look the same, but some take you to optional secrets, others to mandatory parts of the map. Also, the narrow basement maze where the majority of the map's radsuits sits is just plain stupid. This is easily the worst map for me. 

Underwhelming boss fight number three. I'd say this is the hardest episode closer so far, since there is no health, little ammo and only 3 monsters to distract the mastermind. It's still a weak ending to the original release of Doom.

An utter bastard of a level that will kill you if you don't know what you're doing. The lack of health here is legendary, but my bigger concern was tight ammo balance, especially if you're going for the NIN death trap that spawns several barons (my advice - don't go there). It isn't the kindest map in E4, but it serves a purpose demonstrating what Thy Flesh Consumed is: if you've blasted through the first three episodes without breaking a sweat, it's now over.

I know this is an overused phrase, but Perfect Hatred is a combat puzzle, one that gives you all the tools to solve it, you just have to figure it out. I'd say the start is the hardest part, with monsters blocking the way forward, cacodemons closing in and lava all around, punishing you for falling. However, once you survive this (or flee to the next room) and get the plasma rifle, the map gets considerably easier. 

There are tons of barons and cacodemons, but so does cells. The only obstacle is the cyberdemon, that is, if you don't notice a lowered teleported in the centre of the map. This gives you a BFG to kill any stragglers left and opens a secret exit. 

Perfect Hatred is a map I hated on my first go, but with more wads under my belt, I can see it as an interesting challenge to overcome. Besides, it's one hell of departure from Romero's E1 maps.

This map took me embarrasingly long to complete, since I completely missed the yellow key in the starting area and kept running in circles trying to find it. 

I am conflicted about Fear. On one hand, it's ugly. Basic textures, symmetrical layout, lack of lighting, this all creates a rather amateurish looking map. But, yellow key aside, it plays fine. It's action romp from the start and while no single fight sticks out, you are under constant attack until everything is dead. In the end, I can't hate a map I had fun playing.

Solid map. The start throws a lot of monsters at you, but also gives you an invuln - helpful to take out the initial opponents or sprint for bigger guns, assuming you know where they are. Once you're armed, nothing should stand your way. Also, I like the look of this map and the whole wooden aesthetic of E4. It really stands apart from the rest of the episodes.

Short and forgettable map. If you notice a secret with an odd-coloured torch, you've won. The berserk pack will tear through the imps and the rocket launcher will take out the cacodemons. There's also an invuln in a side room, removing all traces of challenge.

I do have to compliment the map's layout. There's a lot of freedom to choose a route, especially if you're willing to walk through lava. Still, there are some oddities, like the (mandatory) yellow key that might as well be a secret or a BFG that you'll likely not need. Also, while I do like how the map looks, I think it's a bit monotonous and I keep getting confused where I even am.

I dreaded playing this map, because during my initial playthrough in 2020, it was a huge uptake in difficulty compared to the previous maps. This time E4M1 gave me more trouble, I think it's because Against Thee Wickedly is another combat puzzle where I more or less knew the solution, while Hell Beneath is a health and ammo famine with a ton of shotgunners.

So yeah, E4M6. First of all, I think it looks great - the demonic stronghold overflowing with lava is among the most striking visuals of the entire Doom 1. As for the gameplay, it's a hard map playing blind. The four-sided teleport pad confused me the first time around and the plasma rifle and rocket launcher hidden in secrets are nigh-mandatory (unless you want to grind down enemies with a shotgun, than sure, go on). There are a ton of damaging floors and while Romero was generous with radsuits, someone who plays this map blind will run out of them. Then there's the final obstacle: the cyberdemon that blocks the exit. You can either fight him head-on in a tiny alcove or perform a surprisingly (for 1995) precise strafe-jump and obtain an invulnerablility sphere. 

It's hard not to look at Against Thee Wickedly (and Perfect Hatred, for that matter) and think how far Doom's combat went from the chaff massacre of E1 to this. It's no surprise this kind of tightly-designed challenges was a huge inspiration for many mappers.

I don't have much too say about this one. I had some trouble with ammo, but if you know about the yellow key and cache of supplies it opens, the map should be a breeze. I did not. The proper routing and knowledge of map's secrets helps a lot. Even without, it's not like E4M7 is a huge challenge. More like a grind to take out barons with limited rockets. I do like how the map looks, but overall it was quite average otherwise.

Out of all episode enders, this one is easily the best. The initial mass of hitscanners reminds me of E1 at its best, but can be taken out with a secret chaingun. The rest of the map is essentially gearing up for the final fight against a mastermind and company. Unlike in E3M8, there's a BFG and enough monsters to distract (or block) her. On the visual side, Unto the Cruel is a combination of marble and wood, which never were my favourite aesthetics, but I think the map looks alright. 

Great episode opener. First of all, it presents a unique aesthetic compared to the official four episodes: much darker, with focus on red and black. It introduces a shootable eye switch, which is a mechanic that is used a lot here. Finally, the resource balance - rather low supply, but finding secrets helps a lot. I can't forget about Jimmy's midi, which also departs in its style from the original, but helps creating this distinct style of the wad. 

Sheol reminds me of Perfect Hatred a bit with its platformover lava (that you'll need to take a dip in, searching for additional resources) and a cyberdemon that can be telefragged (though this can take a bit of practice, as he tends to move around and if you don't time it well, you might teleport right next to him and get blown to pieces). Other than that, there's a cool fight in the dark by the exit. I was low on ammo and didn't find a chaingun, but getting a baron and two cacodemons to infight helped a lot.

What initially looks like a simple corridor, gradually opens up, revealing one challenge after another. There is a tunnel of damaging liquid that you'll need to cross several times, but what I found the most impressive was a narrow, winding path that coils around several cages with imps. The hurtfloor below and a barrage of cacodemon projectile make it a tense scenario. This leads to the red key, where the map slows down considerably. The fight where you return to the initial corridor was fine, but the group of monsters behind the red door can be camped and the baron by the exit is just a time sink. Still, it's a good map, with interesting design and some solid fights.

How this map works is that you have three paths at the start, each ending with a key. Starting from the left, you have a narrow ledge over a river of lava, where one group of monsters block your way forward and other fire at you from the side (I like this one a lot); a series of sinking rocks that ends in a cramped fight with a baron, two cacodemons and some other enemies (I managed to get the baron infighting, otherwise, it would be a complete pain); a crusher maze that, surprisingly, isn't bad.

With all three keys, you can unlock the way to the exit, which is some mostly incidental fighting. Other than a great midi, this one is kinda average.

This map tasks you with exploring a lake of lava with several buildings rising above the surface. Aside from the damaging floor, a pair of cyberdemons makes the exploration harder (don't waste your ammo on them, they can be telefragged at certain points). This all puts a lot of pressure on the player, to move in a deliberate fashion and avoid exposure to lava and flying rockets.

As for combat, I'd say it's solid, though mostly cramped and shotgun-heavy. It's hard not to notice it's halfway through the episode and rockets are in short supply, while we've yet to see cell weapons. The ending, where you run back and forth, triggering ambushes in tight spaces, was rather exciting. On the other had, there's this red tunnel that I feel like went on for a bit too long. Regardless, it's a map I enjoyed a lot.

Starting in a dark cave, Unspeakable Persecution consists of two distinct halves. The first, easier one, is a series of marble tunnels with hell knights and some other stuff. Nothing special here, aside from two secrets that I didn't find until the very end: a BFG behind a wall and truly bizzare invuln room, where you need to raise all red bars and run over the spots below them (on a damaging floor). The other part, though...

It's a maze with a wandering cyberdemon and some monsters on the walls. Now, this bastard is the real deal. The maze is quite cramped, so even if you dodge a rocket, there's a great chance you'll be hit by splash damage. I didn't find a BFG, so I had to use the plasma rifle and then finish him up with a shotgun. It is the hardest fight of SIGIL so far.

The secret exit is unlikely to be found, unless you know where to look for: a shootable switch in the maze that lowers a nearby wall. I had to look this one up.

Just like in E1M9, there's little to distinguish the secret map from the rest of the wad - similiar gameplay style, similiar visual motif, comparable difficulty. I'm not saying this is a bad map, quite the contrary, just that nowadays, people expect the secret stages to be something different.

Realm of Iblis is a compact, interlocking map with a ton of lava, enemies attacking from every angle and little ammo, especially early on. I managed to find a secret with a plasma rifle, it helped a bit, but still, ammo is really scarce here. The red and blue traps release a bunch of monsters in the starting room and it's mostly the tankier ones, like cacodemons and a baron. The rest of the map isn't that bad, just look for secrets to replenish your health. That is, until you reach the fort behind the blue door. Here's yet another cyberdemon that is best ignored (though you'll have to pray he doesn't blow you to pieces in a place this small.

Unlike the rest of SIGIL, Nightmare Underworld isn't a small combat puzzle. This one is larger, mostly linear set of fights, though you'll be doing a fair share of exploration, especially if you want to arm yourself. For once, I didn't feel like there wasn't enough ammo, but the health is still in short supply.

There's a lot in this stronghold and nearby caves: a wandering cyberdemon that, for once, can be taken care of with an easy-to-find BFG, a section where cacodemons float from a hole in the ground, a short Chasm-like part, where you walk above a pool of damaging liquid on a narror path. There's only one thing I didn't like and that's the ending. Carefully creeping along the edge, while being attacked by lost souls hidden behind midtex vines and cacodemons ambushing from below. The whole place has this jagged edges that can make you bounce off the wall and I really see this as a low point of the map.

Finally, a worthy ending. Halls of Perdition is a short map that starts in a cage, with lost souls outside that can teleport to your location. The route will quickly lead you to a hole in a ground that spawns barons, but there's a plasma rifle here and enough cells to make this section doable. The map is front-loaded when it comes to its difficulty, as the next part, a small underground village, provides little resistence, especially with a secret BFG. The final stretch is more fun than challenge: a mastermind, followed by a cyberdemon, followed by a small group of monsters to blow your remaining ammo on. And thus, SIGIL ends on a high note.

A short and easy map, almost as iconic as Hangar. You'll be using your pistol (if you want to play it safe) or a chainsaw (if you want some fun) to dispatch as small group of imps and basic zombies. The secrets with a rocket launcher and shotgun feel like an overkill and I believe they are for continous players. 

Underhalls is a compact sewer map filled with shotgunners. It also contains the one of the biggest gamechangers that Doom 2 introduced: the super shotgun. It can take out a pinky in one shot, decimate crowds and significantly speed up killing bigger monsters (though you won't see them yet). It's a blast to play, running around and destroying everything that stands in your path. It's a fun romp that makes you feel powerful as few maps does.

Another map with a loads of hitscanners, especially in early parts. It was fun to turn a corner, see a group of zombies and eliminate them with a well-placed hail of pellets. The big arena is an interesting one, introducing chaingunners supported by other monsters. A secret blursphere in a well helps a lot. The ending, with pinkies in a pit, makes me miss the SSG. Overall, a solid, though otherwise unremarkable map.

A hitscanner hell with little armour to protect yourself. Even leaving the starting room is a challenge greater than the first three episodes of Doom 1 and I'm not hyperbolic here. You have several chaingunners in on the other end of a hallway, shotgunners right to the left behind the shutter and zombies that just get in your way when you try to snipe priority targets. 

The Focus eases up a bit, replacing zombies with imps, but the danger returns after entering the final stretch - chaingunners have the high ground in this cramped room. Yeah, surprisingly hard for MAP04, but taking things slowly helped me completing this.

I'm not a fan of this one. It's a slow crawl through yet another sewer, this time with little light. Combine this with a midi that can put a man to sleep and you have a pretty forgettable map. Also, a hell knight, a weaker version of baron, debuts here, but he poses no challenge.

There's a lot going on here. First of all, the revenant, one of the most recognisible monsters in the series. It waits for you in the very first room, a cramped square with columns, allowing him and shotgunners to outflank you. Then you drop down into a large basement with imps behind bars, a canal of nukage and a spiderdemon. Yup, the final boss of Doom, now reduced to guarding a plasma rifle and getting crushed. I like this map a lot, The Crusher is full of supplies (which I find funny, as McGee also made E4M1) and provides a steady stream of monsters to eliminate. The fight by the exit, a teleporting ambush of imps, hitscanners and other stuff, is an exciting setpiece and a good way to end a map.

Kill 7 mancubi, then 12 arachnotrons and the map is over. Both monsters appear for the first time and just like hell knight or arachnotron, they add to a much-needed mid-tier part of Doom's bestiary. Another addition is a hard-coded behaviour of certain linedefs that works only in MAP07 and only with mancubi and arachnotrons. While here it's used to just introduce a second wave of monsters and open a way to the exit, subsequent mappers would find more creative ways to utilise this mechanic.

Dead Simple is a, well, simple map that can be completed in 2 minutes, but its influence cannot be understated.

Tricks and Traps contains the highest concentration of gimmicks out of all four IWADs. There's of course the cyberdemon vs barons infight that everyone remembers, but also a wall of pinkies and a room with a plasma rifle, where firing a shot wakes up a cloud of cacodemons. There's a lot to be seen here, not all is mandatory, and I think it's a good break between more conventional maps.

"Into Sandy's City" is in my TOP 3 Doom 2 tracks, but the map itself... It has one great fight (the rocket launcher trap that is like something out of Plutonia), the rest isn't to my liking. Like the confusing part with a three-way switch (especially the optional room with a set of lowering stairs) or the amount of useless pain elementals. It also doesn't look good, with some chunky geometry and mishmash of textures.

It's an odd map, that's for sure. While the texturing work feels very dated even by iwads standards, underneath this hides a non-linear playground full of monsters and helpful secrets (which I encourage finding, as they help with navigation and provide much-needed ammo). This reminds me of some E2 maps, due to their open nature and emphasis on exploration (which is fitting, since this is a reject from early stages of Doom 1 development, brough to completion by Petersen). I do have to point out that I've missed a fairly obvious yellow key in the zombie-infested warehouse (probably the most memorable part of the map) and spent way too much time wandering around the empty map, trying to figure out what have I missed. There's also a cyberdemon guarding the exit, but the map provides a BFG and two invulns, so he's no threat. 

The first Romero's map after Knee-deep in the Dead and it's a stark departure from rampaging through a techbase. Space is at a premium, since a large chunk of the map is covered by hurtfloors and the fights are tightly-designed, both of which are traits of his E4 maps and SIGIL. I feel like the start is the hardest, as you're deprived of guns and placed in the middle of the titular ring, surrounded by monsters. Once this is cleared, it's time for the blue key and the archvile. You can either try to rush for the plasma rifle, risking getting attacked, or play safe and kill him with a shotgun or chaingun. A rather underwhelming introduction to Doom 2's most interesting enemy.

The rest of the map poses little threat, providing you know how to access the bulk cells on the ledge.

Probably the worst example of mismatched map with its title. The map itself feels off, with a central building full of mancubi to patiently take out using an SSG and the cacodemon room that is equally slow. The sole thing I found interesting were the homages to Sandy's E2 maps.

Downtown seem to be one of Doom 2's most disliked maps and I can't disagree with this sentiment. I get that this was an attempt to design an urban map, something that wasn't present in the original three episodes, breaking new grounds and creating a template other mappers would expand upon. It just doesn't make the map play any better.

The biggest flaw of Downtown is how confusing and backtrack-heavy it is. A lot of places are only accessible via a network of teleporters and you'll have to figure out with trial and error where they lead. Or that one fucking room with crates (you know, that one where a big arrow on the ground points to) that I had to visit over and over again, because several important things routes you through here. I was low on ammo and health for most of the map, but that's more of an issue of exploration - there are supplies hidden in secrets, if you know how to find them. Also, the midi from MAP05 makes its return. Not the best idea in a map where you are spending a considerable part wandering around and trying to figure out what you've missed.

In the end, this is a pretty weak map in itself, but one where the community improved a concept a lot.

By contrast to the previous map, The Inmost Dens is a community's darling, known for its distinct visuals and combat that holds to this day. The layout is highly-detailed, which stands up well against basic geometry of many iwad maps. It has been referenced by a ton of wads, look for a series of tan buildings, surrounded by a moat.

As I've said, the gameplay holds up well, there are a lot of sniping hitscanners to keep you on your toes. At many points you can jump off the path into the moat, allowing you to find additional resources of flank the enemies. There's another archvile here and it's much better fight than in MAP11 - he sits in an open room, surrounded by zombies to ressurect (or you can just bottleneck him in a doorway, this works as well). All this is connected by fights against some basic monsters to keep the momentum high. I like this map, easily McGee's best.

Just like with MAP12, there's nothing here that would indicate any industrial purpose here. It's a city map, not unlike Downtown, but much better. I find it interesting how Romero used the same concept as Petersen but ended up with much superior result.

For one, Industrial Zone cuts down the number of imps and adds a lot of hitscanners, making them a reliable source of ammo, something I lacked in Downtown. It also features less backtracking, so despite a hefty lenght, you are always killing something. Finally, the map is loaded with secrets, providing additional resources to those who are willing to search a bit. The most important is a nested one that opens a secret exit.

It's a fun map and a great improvement of the urban design.

A faithful recreation of the opening map from the shareware episode of Wolfenstein 3D. It's flat, square, filled with a basic hitscanner enemy and makes me appreciate Doom even more. There's nothing more to it, just be conservative with ammo and don't get lost. The secret exit is behind an unmarked wall near the regular one.

If you know about the secrets (namely, the BFG and invuln), there is zero challenge here - kill a crowd of nazis, rush the cyberdemon and the map is over before you know it. Like MAP31, Grosse is also a remake of Wolf3D map and I'm not the biggest fan of them both.

I've heard several people calling this "the very first slaughter map" and while I personally don't agree with this statement, I can't deny Suburbs contains probably the biggest fight id mappers ever designed.

The first task is to get armed, as the map is crawling with monsters (including an archvile outside). After a couple of deaths I managed to find a super shotgun and a secret with a BFG, at this point I was ready to grab the invulnerability sphere, the blue key and start taking out a mass of demons that teleports in. As I've said, I don't think there is anything like this horde in either Doom or Doom 2. 

The red key building is more conventional - just some revenants to shoot. I recommend saving a BFG shot or two for the exit-guarding crowd of imps, it's fun to gib them en masse. I like this one, it's among Sandy's best works.

I'll be blunt, this has to be one of Romero's weakest maps. It's slow, grindy (tons of cacodemons early on, no SSG, cell weapons are at the end) and heavy on backtracking. The room with extending corridors is the worst exaple of this. 

I'm not sure why, but The Courtyard reminds me of Unholy Cathedral somewhat. Perhaps it's a similiar idea of a central arena with paths branching off of it? My playthrough was of little fun, I quickly stumbled into a teleporter that brought me to a maze of pinkies and shotgunners, making the gameplay rather tedious. Maybe if I chose a different path, it would have lead to a large infight in the titular plaza? Either way, it's a bizzare and experimental map, feeling at times like Tricks and Traps 2 (see the room with a blue skull hidden among health vials, this one would fit into MAP08 like a glove) and not something I had fun with.

Forget what I've said about MAP18, this is the real sequel to Unholy Cathedral we didn't deserve (because nobody should play that horrible map). Once again, it's large, confusing to navigate and really, really tedious. You'll be mostly fighting imps and pinkies, so prepare to punch out a lot of demons. And I mean, a lot. The horde of spectres outside is downright comical, but soon you won't be laughing. 

The goal of the map is finding hidden keys, some would qualify as secrets in other maps. Expect to press every wall, hoping something would happen. Also, The Citadel is downright ugly, with concrete walls dominating the map. The less said about this one, the better.

Also known as "that one map with cyberdemon versus mastermind fight". My first attempt was a disaster, I was constantly low on ammo - I think it's an routing issue, since after trying again it was more successful.

Gotcha! keeps up with other post-E1 Romero's maps: tight on resources, full of lava you can explore for secrets and presenting some well-placed monsters. Prepare to fight surprise chaingunner squads, shotgunner traps and pain elementals. Luckily, this time you can at least find a super shotgun, something I've missed in Circle of Death and Tenements.

I disliked this map on my first try, now I respect it more.

There it is, one of the most despised maps of all iwads. I don't mind this one. Now, I get where all the criticism comes from: it's a hot mess of rooms, textures and ideas that doesn't work toghether. However, it's also very short and has some fight that were engaging. Like the shotgunner attack or the yellow key trap. It's far from a good map, but it passes away quickly (unlike, say, Downtown or The Citadel).

If you put this map in Plutonia, it would blend right in. Just like Cassali's maps, The Catacombs is a tightly-wound death trap that assaults you with surprise chaingunners and some cramped encounters, often involving chaingunners. Like that moment where you teleport into a platform over a pool of toxic sludge and are immediately under fire. But, once you survive this, the rest can be overcome by expecting a trap behind every corner.

I think The Catacombs has grown on me more than any other map in Doom 2. I hated its ruthlessness at first, but after Plutonia, I can appreciate its compact and punchy nature.

Everyone is mocking Nirvana, which I find strange when this exists. Barrels o' Fun is just painful to play. The biggest complaint is the long corridor with pain elementals, followed by another, even more narrow one where you are locked with a rushing wave of pinkies. What a shitshow. This would have been passible if Sandy gave us a super shotgun but nope, tough luck. The rest is just boring, with a mastermind I had to kill with rockets and some barrels shenanigans.

Also, the map is ugly, with very blocky design and the music really, really pisses me off. Forget The Citadel or Downtown, this is the absolute worst map of Doom 2.

The Chasm seem to be the most divisive map of Doom 2 and here I am, standing in the middle of the argument. It has this puzzle vibe, where you start defenseless, guns are fiercely protected and you have to figure out what to do. At the same time, it's confusing to get around, owing to narrow ledges you need to walk across, open layout and monotonous textures. The combat is a mixed bag, there's a lot of punching pinkies or killing imps in narrow hallways. However, the chaingunner trap by is lethat, especially when you have no bigger guns.

I don't hate this one, but it felt tedious to play.

Green's sole contribution to Doom 2 is a bit of a filler. It's short and not that difficult,a lot of fights can be spammed with plasma, though courtyard shootout and the ending, with chaingunners in dark corners and an archvile, is an exciting fight. Bloodfalls is more famous for its design quirks, like an empty secret (on UV, it holds a BFG on lower difficulties) or the floating cube above the exit.

If you're pistol-starting and you don't know where the secrets are (chiefly: the plasma rifle), good luck. The Abandoned Mines starts with cacodemons in cramped hallways with little ammo in sight. Cacodemons seem to be your main antagonist here, being present in nearly every room, attacking in waves or surrounding you when trying to cross a narrow path to the blue door. 

By Romero standards, this is in a lower tier.

Here's another open map that will shower you with supplies if you know where to go, but if you don't, expect fighting tanky enemies or hordes of hitscanners with basic guns. This can get deadly, and indeed, at some points I got down to single-digit health, with a proper route however, you should find a BFG and several invuln spheres.

There's once again a bit of Tricks and Traps DNA here, with a secret that closes on a timer or a copy of one room that you're teleported to if you try to exit. A strong map and a fine ending to Sandy's gimmick maps.

I don't think I had good memories with The Spirit World, as the start is very tight on ammo and full of enemies (including three pain elementals and an archvile). However, once you get past this, you enter a large red cavern with a BFG and several invuln spheres. The map throws a lot of powerful enemies, including two masterminds and more archviles than any other map in Doom 2, but they pose no threat when you are invinvible. It's a surprisingly fun map to play if you know what to do.

The Living End presents a template that gets used to this very day (including by Romero himself in his E4 maps and SIGIL): a large cavern with lava at the bottom, faraway snipers, tight ledges and a lot of verticality. As for its difficulty, it depends on whether you find the I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-secret plasma rifle early on, it will carry you to the end. I have little complaints here, the map looks fine, some encounters can be a challenge (like the early parts where you lack stronger weapons or when cacodemons ambush you on the top of a column) and the cyberdemon duel would be a proper way to end the game. But sadly, there is one more map to play.

The curse of bad final maps continues (E4M8 was released later). Here, your goal is to avoid monsters that are constantly spawning, ride a lift and try fitting rockets into a hole in the Icon's forehead. While there are worse iterations of this concept that were made by the community since, it's still an anticlimactic finale.

The first thing you'll notice upon booting up the wad is a highly detailed layout. Unlike other official wads, No Rest for the Living is not bound to the limitations of the original .exe. This helps fleshing out a map that would otherwise be just another STARTAN techbase.

I recommend grabbing a berserk pack behind the UAC logo, it helps a lot dispatching basic monsters that stand between you and the exit. Here's a thing though: there's a lot more to see. The map is loaded with secrets and if you dig a bit, you'll find a large outdoor storage yard, filled with crates and containers. It contains the yellow key and the best fight of the map: a cramped encouter with two hell knights, supported by imps and pinkies. A bit of an odd choice to make it optional, but I highly recommend seeking this one out.

I also can't forget about the midi. Not Message for the Archvile, but decino's track that gives off this weirdly cosy vibe. It's a great addition to a pleasent map to play.

The Pain Labs is a small techbase with a classic, early wad-style gameplay (ie. mostly hitscanner with an occasional bigger demon) and a ton of secrets. Seriously, they are everywhere with the most important one being the super shotgun. I'd say they are well marked with odd textures and other environmental cues, searching for them was the main draw of the map.

Not a bad map, just not leaving as big of an impression as the opening level.

Canyon of the Dead is very clearly divided into two parts. It starts in a small base with timed monster closets - this part is fine, but I prefer the second one. The titular canyon is a large sandbox with monsters all around and useful equipment in various places. Fliers are the biggest threat, as they can follow you around, but also don't underestimate snipers. The map concluds with an assault on a hellish castle and a satisfying rocket spam. Also, the midi is outstanding.

The map starts with an uphill battle (literally), climbing towards a demonic stronghold where the rest of the map is set. I like this place, you are given a steady stream of monsters to kill, while trying to find the required keys. Once again, there's a ton of secrets to be found, including a nested exit to a secret map. I remember it took me a while to find it the first time I've played this wad, this time I had little issues finding the red key and the rest went smooth. 

I don't think this map made a huge impression on me the first time I've played it but damn, that's some good fights here. The bulk of the map takes place in a cramped techbase, where enemies attack you from every direction. It's a hectic setpiece, where you desperately try to not get overwhelmed, with a great midi playing in the background. I love it.

It's a long map filled with cramped fights, where you are slaughtering whole corridors of demons. The early parts are a bit sluggish, as Vivisection is heavy on bigger monsters (cacodemons, mancubi, hell nobles etc.) and you don't have bigger guns. Once you find a super shotgun, it gets more entertaining. The highlight is the red key fight, where the map gets flooded with foes, but also opens up, giving you more options to outmaneuver them.

The midi pack keeps bringing great tracks (seriously, I can't imagine playing this with stock Doom 2 music) and the aesthetics of tan bricks and red blood works well.

Red rocks, red bricks and red lava - great aesthetic combination for a highly entertaining map. There's a similiar gameplay style to Vivisection - a large map that leads you through previously-visited areas, now repopulated with more monsters, so you'll be fighting something all the time. One side objective is finding a series of hidden switches that unlock a BFG - I sadly found it at the end, it would have been useful against the final ambush.

Baron's Banquet uses similiar building blocks as MAP06, though with more buildings and less natural scenery. Hell, there's even a secret, multi-step BFG that I missed. I just feel it's less focused. The part where you climb a large tower is probably the weakest setpiece of the wad, as there is too much verticality and too little space to move. Also, the cacodemon ambush at the top? Just run down and funnel them into a corridor, fighting them in the open is a suicide.

After this is done, the combat relies on clumps of monsters that can be blown with rockets and sprayed with plasma. The final fight was a big rocket dump against a crowd that appears behind a lowering wall, which isn't the most complex setup, but fun nevertheless.

For a boss fight, this isn't half bad. The main arena contains 101 imps and a cyberdemon in a maze, where you can lower some walls to reveal guns, ammo, the only backpack in the entire episode and a secret invuln sphere (though it's nested in another secret and behind a long lowering wall, I took out the cyberdemon without its help). Probably one of the better final map when it comes to official wads.

For a set of maps this infamous, this is not a bad start. Attack is an interconnected techbase with a small cast of monsters. I'm not a deathmatch player, but from my experience with other games, it does feel like a multiplayer map: open with little places to camp. 

What a mess. If you want your map to look more mature, pick a theme and stick with it - you'll end up with a visually-coherent map. Willits didn't do this, instead, he switched textures with every new room. Metal, marble, techbase walls and more exist side by side in Canyon. I personally prefer the look of Attack.

As for the gameplay, this one also has an interconnected feel. The combat is basic, but otherwise fine. I don't mind the big, slime-filled arena, but the rest is an incidental corridor clearing. Canyon is the weaker of the two maps submitted by Willits.

Okay, now I think I understand why people don't like the Master Levels. Catwalk is just annoying. It opens with your way being blocked by randomly lowering lifts, which is made worse by the fact you'll have to return here several times. Too much backtracking for my liking. The combat is nothing special and poses little challenge. The titular catwalk at the end, though, is a narrow, lowering path above an inescapable pit. It's a nasty beginner's trap, and I know Sandy did the same thing in Tricks and Traps, but it was equally dumb as this.

I think The Combine is slightly better than Catwalk, since it gives you a super shotgun at the start and doesn't feature tanky monsters. That being said, it still has some moments that were meant to be creative, but ended up being stupid and/or annoying. The two examples are a tightrope walk over a pit with monsters below your eye level and the yellow key puzzle, where you have to catch several switches.

Out of all Klie's maps so far, this is the best. It feels cramped, with less space and more enemies stuffed in. The willingness to use less conventional shapes (see the acute angle of the stairs in the starting room or the inverted hub right next) make it stand out more. Also, the new midi gives this laid-back vibe I like a lot.

I find this one to be very confusing to navigate. After a surprisingly challenging start, your mission turns into finding the three keys. It took me way too long and that's because it's easy to softlock yourself. See, there's this button that opens a number of teleporters around, including one leading to the red key. The problem is, it's at the end of a narrow ledge that collapses under your feet (thinking of which, this is Klie's fourth map and the fourth one to reference The Chasm). The pit below has no way out and you can't lift the ledge again, so if you fell or failed to press the switch, you are screwed. I didn't press it and wandered around the map, trying to figure out what to do, only to give up and check the Doomwiki. This aside, the map looks fine, though a bit too empty. I just wish the progression was streamlined.

Oof, I remember this name from Eternal Doom. I enjoyed Flynn's maps somewhat, they were definitely unique in their application of more obscure mechanics and they carried the third chapter of that megawad. That being said, they were also overly long and switch-hunt heavy, with less time spent on fighting than figuring out where to go next.

Titan Manor is no different, it's an exploratory puzzle map, where you never know if you've found a secret or a part of mandatory progression. I've spent 30 minuts here, running around and checking what that button did, because the required route isn't very clear. At least I didn't have to use the wiki this time, which I consider a huge success. The combat isn't good, with the horde outside the manor being rather useless and tedious to take out. I wish I'd figure out how to get the rocket launcher, as the map is very generous with rockets and it would have helped a lot.

This is definitely an acquired taste and I know some people would love to spend time unraveling this mess, but I'm not one of them. Titan Manor lacks the creativity and the sense of irreverence of Flynn's Eternal Doom map (and its texture pack).

The bulk of the map is some sort of stronghold with inner tower patrolled by shotgunners. Early parts were fine, as you are running through this place, taking out everything that was placed here. Once they were dead, I struggled with where to go next. The yellow key was easy to find - a door lead to a long hall with columns, which ended with a leaky teleport ambush. Then I was stumped, before I relised the teleporter in the centre are, in fact, 3 separate ones that warp you to 3 different building, two of which hold the required keys. Each of them is protected by a bit lame teleport trap, once this is done, the exit is wide open.

I feel like this one starts strong, but then turns from combat to exploration, slowing down the pace it had.

Another Klie's map, another potential softlock. If you don't find a switch behind a computer panel (something that would be a secret in most other levels), there's no way out of the yellow key area. This is 5th out of 6 maps by Klie in this pack and so far all contained at least one room with The Chasm-like ledged. I wonder if the next map also feature them.

The combat in somewhat entertaining in its simplicity, as the map consists of mostly imps and hitscanners. I just wish I didn't have to replay it because its author hid a critical element of progression without a way to return. Also, that midi, clearly inspired by a track from Mock 2.

The last Master Level by Klie and yes, it does feature ledges (more like a walkway over a nukage pool but whatever, still counts). I'd say Subterra is one of the better map of his, if only because it's not as frustrating as The Catwalk of The Garrison. It does feature a cool fight against imps and zombies in a large warehouse, but that's about it. 

This is a surprising hit of Master Levels. Compared to Flynn's other map, Trapped on Titan is far less impenetrable, with a more reasonable progression. Still, there are moments that made me scratch my head, for instance I'm still not sure what opened the wall with the blue door. There are twice as many monsters and are spread throughtout the map, so there's far less time spent backtracking and wallhumping your way forward.

The fights stick with you more, especially the descending elevator with lowering columns, hitscanners and an archvile or a hectic urban section. This is also the biggest Master Level so far, both in terms of lenght and size of individual rooms.

I feel major E4 vibes, which shouldn't be surprising, as Anderson also made E4M7: And Hell Followed. Virgil's Lead displays similiar usage of wood and marble, which, combined with dim lighting, presents and atmospheric map. Too bad the midi pack preferred a more experimental approach.

The combat is on an easier side of spectrum, with adequate supplies to take down a standard monster composition. The ending with a lake of blood is an obvious standout.

An extension of Virgil's Lead in the visual department, but with more meat to its bones combat-wise. This means it's longer and have more enemies to kill, with a ton of monster closets that keep you on edge. I found the backtracking-heavy progression to be a bit confusing. 

Exactly what it says on the tin: a demonic stronghold in the middle of a sea of blood. I found this one to be very annoying for a couple of reasons. First of all, crushers. Bloodsea Keep loves them, especially slow ones that appears out of nowhere and just kill you. Secondly, you won't have any weapons aside from the shotgun for a the bulk of the map, with SSG, chaingun and rocket launcher in obscure places and/or secrets. This makes the combat drag a lot and you can guess how pissed I was when finding a super shotgun only to learn it was booby-trapped with a fucking crusher.

What a trainwreck. Mephisto's Maosoleum (sic!) is a crappy marriage of Dead Simple and The Icon of Sin, a repetitive map where consisting of two parts you run to and from. One is an ugly, empty area outside, the other is the titular Maosoleum, a cramped space with the Icon on every wall. The map will have you killing single-species groups of monsters, including mancubi and arachnotrons, located awkwardly in the Icons' foreheads. The map ends with a proper IoS, because why not.

The first two maps by Sverre Kvernmo, the guy who would go on to make Darkdome, have been a massive disappointment.

Anderson keeps the aesthetics, but switches the gameplay style. Nessus is an open map that tasks you with arming yourself and killing everything. Due to its non-linear nature (which does indeed reminds me of a multiplayer map), describing the progression here misses the point - just keep in mind that most of the weapons are in the central building. I do have to praise the rocking soundtrack, perhaps more conventional than the rest of the midi pack but fits the action of Nessus a lot.

A highly atmospheric map, no small help thanks to its new calming midi. Geryon is all about exploration, though it's one of those maps where the way forward is indistinguishible from a secret room. Anyway, try finding a hidden door in a room with a large slime tank - it leads to a BFG which helps with the final room.

It's a very relaxing map to play, the fights aren't very tough and the new soundtrack fits like a glove.

Out of all maps by Anderson, this one is the most combat-centric. It starts with a courtyard that reminds me of Nessus, only to turn into a methodical creep through narrow corridors. I screwed myself over on my first run by going into the northern part first, it was a waste of health an ammo, leading only to dead ends. The proper way is the western portion, it contains all the guns you'll need and a yellow key. Yeah, this one. You need to walk on a narrow, barely visible ledge to an alcove and open a secret compartment that holds a key (a mandatory one, let me remind you).

The final boss is a cyberdemon in a pit that guards the blue key, he's no threat with an invuln. Solid map overall, though I found my first attempt to be somewhat frustrating.

Definitetely the biggest of all Master Levels, with a killcount of 390. The starting area presents you with a triple-locked exit and the entrance to the titular Black Tower, where the bulk of the action takes place. The goal is to search this place for all three keys, return to the ground floor and leave. The fact the keys are hidden in a rather convolute way is my only gripe with the map - the rest is a non-stop fight, especially since you get a BFG early on. Rows of hitscanners, teleporting barons (Death Domain-style, though that map was made later), finally a cyberdemon on the cluttered roof. It's not the end, Kvernmo repopulates the map on your way back, so there's always something to do. In the end, this is probably my favourite map of the set, with solid visuals (especially the tower itself) and energetic combat.

The hardest map of the collection and it isn't up for debate. Extremally cramped and full of evil traps that are hard to prepare for. The map is an 8-way hub centered on the titular lift, with each floor serving a new challenge to the player. From the opening shot you are under fire, forced to dodge in places where there's little room to do so and the health is rather scarce. 

Now, most fights will kill you on your first try, but usually it went much better knowing what to do. The single exception is that one room where you press a switch and it fills with chaingunners. Not cool. If you want to see the secret map, you have to find three keys hidden in secrets (I've found two on my own) and perform an archvile jump. Not the biggest fan of this, but at least there's a invuln in this room, so it could have been worse.

It's a nasty map, but also one Master Level that I will remember.

So, what's the reward for finding the secret exit in TEEtH? A joke map where you have to outrun a horde of cyberdemons, wait for them to get crushed while killing some trash with a chainsaw while invulnerable. It's a dumb map, but at the same time, perfect way to decompress after Kvernmo's previous one.

The first map of TNT starts with a berserk pack, so you can plough through a small cast of imps and hitscanners. All this to the sound of a rock tune. It's a good opener that does a great job of building momentum.

A considerable difficulty hike and the introduction of TNT's main way of providing challenge: faraway hitscanners with not enough health to fix your wounds. The courtyard with the red door is notorious for this, you'll be chipped away from every angle. The bigger offender is the cavern, which not only has chaingunner snipers, but also a pain elemental that you'll likely have to kill with a shotgun. The rest isn't bad and a secret where you can telefrag several hell noble is a neat idea.

The run-and-gun action is solid, but damn, the map is confusing to navigate. The rooms around the central hub look the same thanks to their orthogonal shapes and monotonous texture choice, while the hub itself is very symmetrical. But hey, at least you get an SSG to clear this.

You can finish Wormhole pretty quickly, as the exit is right next to the starting room. I've always wondered if this is a deliberate choice to hide the level's titular feature and made it accessible only to those willing to look deeper, or a simple oversight.

If you explore the service tunnels, you'll stumble across a strange portal that leads to the future version of the map, lined with corpses of dead enemies and repopulated by new ones. Cool idea, but the tunnels are very cramped and it is easy to waste all your ammo and health if you don't follow a proper route. I can't deny though that Wormhole is a highly atmospheric and memorable map.

A very tight techbase, filled with hitscanners. A bit unwieldly to move around (due to a lack of space and progression that isn't the most straightforward), but fun to play when you know what to do. My favourite part was at the end, where you teleport to a balcony with all kinds of zombies, imps and barrels. Because this place is in clear view of the command room you need to walk several times through, it was satisfying as hell to get rid of them.

Another map that drips with atmosphere (in no small part thanks to its midi), this time it's a desolate nuclear reactor. It's the main feature of the map, you'll visit its chamber from several angles, including a precarious walk over a pool of lava (molten core?). This aside, the combat offers nothing special besides your standard corridor clearing.

TNT is turning up the heat with this one. While far from the prettiest (I'd go as far as to say Prison does look bad with its flat layout and homogenous texture choice; I get place like this shouldn't be visually stunning, but I feel there is a room for improvement), it offers the best action of the wad so far. The compound is swarming with monsters of all varieties, so establishig a foothold is a challenge under fire. The standout fight is the cellblock where you are surrounded by imps and hell nobles. It can be made easier with a help of a secret invulnerability sphere, but it's still one encounter that sticks with you.

Not a fan of this one, as it exemplifies everything I dislike about TNT's combat. From the very start, Metal assaults you with hitscanners, while offering little in terms of health and cover. The part with a staircase where a chaingunner attacks you from so high you can't target him (let alone see) is pure bullshit, but the real claim to infamy are those large coverless rooms with zombies of all three kinds scattered around. I know about an unofficial secret blursphere, but still, the last room is nasty and repetitive at the same time. The only thing that saves Metal is the its audio-visual side, with its steel textures and one of the most memorable tracks of the wad.

Hitscanner hell that I love. I've said many times that I see mowing down hordes of imps and zombies as Doom's equivalent of fast food - hardly sophisticated, but entertaining nevertheless. Stronghold delivers nearly 300 of them in a rather cramped space, so you'll be blasting whole corridors with a super shotgun and chaingun. One thing I would add though is some armor early on, it would make the begining more fair. Be careful with the traps and you should make it to the end.

I seriously undersetimated this one, only to die in the first ambush - a small room with a parapet of zombies (chaingunners included) and a hell knight inside. It's not the only trap here, but I was more cautious and wasn't surprised this badly. The fight by the yellow key, where monsters teleport in was fun, but not very threatening, as you are given a plasma rifle and a ton of cells.

The main attraction here is the large warehouse where you'll be spending the bulk of the map - full of demons to kill. It's a maze that can be a bit confusing to navigate, but it's a memorable part of the map. The music fits the action well.

One word: underpopulated. Like seriously, this map is huge, but there aren't that many monsters to fill it. Some areas are better in this regard, like the sewage that runs around the map, but the titular Crater with 3 revenants and a baron or an optional part where you walk around the slimefall. And no, I don't believe it was done to build the atmosphere, not with "Dave D. Taylor Blues" as midi. It's just a huge, boring map that offers little challenge.

Also, I had to replay it because I facerocketed myself trying to kill the final enemy and I forgot about saving. As you've guessed, it didn't help with the Crater's reception.

I think the biggest strenght of Nukage Processing is its non-linear nature. You can either go through the slime pool first, or find a hidden shortcut to the outside area, where two out of three keys and a super shotgun can be found. The combat is fine, with an exception of a cyberdemon, who feels like a waste of time to kill and can be easily skipped. The best fight, outside the battle outside, is the ending, first a corridor of chaingunners in the front and other monsters attacking from the flanks, then a small room with more chaingunners and barons.

The exit is right next to the starts, it is however blocked by red bars. Inconveniently, the key is at the opposite end of the titular metallurgical plant. So, you have to go all the way through this place, eliminate its posessed crew, retrieve the keycard and return, unleashing a mastermind from her storage container. She acts as the map's final obstacle, but a super shotgun and enough shells should bring her down.

I feel like the main challenge comes not from the enemies, but environmental factors. Crushers are everywhere and the map is full of damaging floors, with only a pair of radsuits to rely on. Also, the music is rather odd. Not that it's bad, it's just very unusual, but I think it does its part in creating a memorable map.

This seems to me like a repurposed deathmatch map - Dead Zone has a very open layout, every room has at least two exits, there are additional secret passages and the monsters feel like they were being placed randomly. The end result is a map with an unclear and underwhelming progression - the regular exit is unlocked by pressing a switch in the centre of the map, the secret one can be reached through a teleporter hidden in an unmarked wall inside one of the secrets. Dead Zone is one of the weaker maps so far.

Disclaimer: I've played MAP31 with a patch that fixes the yellow key issue. It is an embarrassing mistake to make a map unwinnable without pulling out some cryptic stunts, but from what I've heard, it's more an id's fault than Team TNT's and the Unity version have it fixed, so I won't be complaining.

While I doubt Pharaoh was the first Egyptian-themed map, it's the one to stuck with people. TNT's secret maps stand out by abandoning the wad's themes and going their own way. 

Pharaoh is full of personality, with custom textures on full display, creative setpieces and evocative midi. You'll have to explore a pyramid with its surroundings, fending off spectres in the dark, enemy ambushes and a cool final fight where shotgunners teleport in down the corridor. Probably my favourite is when you lower the wall after getting the red key, seeing only a single zombie - attacking this poor soul releases a crowd of cacodemons. This one always makes me giggle. One thing I would cut is the cyberdemon that appear at one point, he isn't threatening, but is a pain to kill. If you want to see the super secret map, look out for a boathouse in the exit area.

The map feels empty and backtrack-heavy at times, but with the intermission midi, this gives it this somber vibe. Still, out of the two the secret levels this is my second favourite one.

It's hard to see Caribbean as anything but proto-Plutonia. If you replace water with mud or blood, it would fit right into that wad's second act. Part of this is its heavy use of wood textures, but the combat here is pure Plutonia. Ambushes are everywhere, the two most common monster types are chaingunners and revenants and generally the gameplay style has this calculated ruthlessness that I enjoy in Final Doom's other half. At the same time, you are loaded with rockets, so don't be discouraged to use them.

There is this cool part at the end, where a part of map appears out of the blue, with cyberdemon and the monster horde at the end. The way to open the exit door, where you have to teleport back and forth to press timed switches is my sole complaint here. In the end, combining Pharaoh's approach of taking you out of the wad's progression with a healthy challenge is a winning formula.

It is a good-looking map, I'll admit that. The whole concept of a temple complex hidden inside a cave network is a creative idea, with a lot of variety with shapes and textures. However, it's also scarce with resources, unless you know about its obscure secrets, and the combat is mostly clearing corridors. The exception is the final fight in a marble pit next to an altar. There's a hidden ammo cache, locked behind an unofficial nested secret, if you're low on resources.

Aside from the music (I like "Blood Jungle" a lot), Deepest Reaches is an overly long and forgettable experience.

A breezy techbase with near constant fights (usually against weaker monsters). TNT's maps can sprawl somewhat, so it's great to play a quick level that doesn't waste your time. The red key fight was the only one to give me trouble, with a small room of teleporting hitscanners, an archvile and no stronger weapons than a super shotgun - that is, until I realised there's an invuln and a plasma rifle. 

Processing Area has an odd secret placement. The rocket launcher and BFG are only reachable after the red key fight, at which point almost all enemies are dead. I'm not sure what the point is - perhaps a bonus for continuous players? In any case, this is a strong map that acts as a breather between longer levels.

Of three maps Dario Casali contributed to this project, Mill is the worst one. The biggest problem is a confusing and somewhat cryptic progression. I spent half an hour trying to figure out how to proceed, with every step forward being met with another wall I struggled to pass through. The combat feels grindy due to excessive use of barons, with the exception of the last battle by the exit (minus the fact I couldn't find how to trigger it). It's a mass of teleporting monsters, including a cyberdemon that usually infights something. It's the sole part where it feels like a Casali map. 

While the map does look good, it means little when it's a slog to play.

Also known as "the doomcute map".

Shipping/Respawning does a great job feeling like a real place, a warehouse with adjacent office space. There are so many tiny details that build this illusion. Like a truck next to a loading bay, or an office with a key in a drawer. 

When it comes to the gameplay, it's fine, mostly hitscanners and imps, but the part with teleporters could be trimmed down - they are a bit slow to unload all the monsters and just when you think everything is dead, one more chaingunners spawn. The map ends with a row of zombies and an archvile hiding in a box.

I'm not sure how to think about this one. Central Processing has grand scale (something O'Brien attempted in all his maps here, with varying degree of success), with large, distinct setpieces. I'd say it works here for the most part, where you explore a forgotten complex and moving from one memorable place to the next. Office space, abandoned warehouse, slime pool, all flows surprisingly well. The music also feels like this is all a build-up to something bigger, pushing you to see what will happen next.

Now, the ending is where all this derails. An overly long trek through cliffs and confusing teleporters, with surprisingly little monsters save from chaingunner snipers. There are also laughably useless pain elementals and a mastermind + archvile ambush that is annoying to take on thanks to the large size of the place. This part just confuses large scope with a large size. 

In the end, Central Processing is an ambitious map that wasn't able to fully realise its potential.

Speaking of confusing large scope and large size, we have this - a map that is an absolute chore to play. The very first arena have you fight shotgunners attacking from across the corridors and a number of sniping chaingunners. The rest isn't much better, you have to unlock one key after another, all in a slime pit that gets repopulated with monsters, between this are some rather boring fights and several tricks involving insta-lowering walls.

The map ends in a large field that, despite holding a quarter of map's enemies, feels empty (also, at one point it unleashes an archvile that is best rushed with a BFG - if you didn't find it, good luck). What I find interesting is how Administration Center shares a lot with Central Processing, but ends up being much worse. Even the music doesn't save it - I love "Into Sandy's City", but that's a track for an action scene, not a slow crawl. This is TNT at its worst.

A welcomed reprieve after the last map. Yes, I am not joking. I get why Habitat is so disliked: it's ugly as hell, with little usage of lighting and clashing texture choice, while making a number of strange design decisions. At the same time, there's a lot of care with micro-details (the lowering walls where you emerge to the surface near the exit are especially impressive, considering it's all vanilla Doom), the sewers, while looking the same, are oddly satisfying to run through and the fights are mostly made of running through narrow hallways and killing hitscanners. As with Nirvana, it's not the best map, but compared to some more aggravating levels, I see Habitat as inoffensive.

Pretty weak map. It consists of two parts: a symmetrical techbase and caves in the northern part. The former is your standard TNT stuff, with a ton of hitscanners in a spacious area (though this time with more cover than usual), the latter are more interesting thanks to their cramped nature and a blue key ambush. Other than that and a cool exit portal that creatively uses a sky texture, there's little of note.

Another forgettable map, some caves ending in a pit that I guess is the titular Quarry. It's one of a shortest and easiest levels in a while, especially if you know about an invuln in a lava-filled cavern. Also, it's a second map in a row with a midi I don't like.

This one isn't as bad, but once again, leaves little impression. It's mostly running through tunnels and taking out whatever is in your way. It gets better by the end, with a fight against caged barons and a fake exit, but it's not a map I'm dying to replay.

It reminds me a lot of the previous map, to be honest - a network of caves, some rather cramped, low visibility and mostly incidental combat. There's one cool fight, where you step onto a teleport pad and end up in a cage, with a host of monsters on the other side. This aside, it's rather forgettable.

Being forgettable is a recurring complaint I have with the final episode of TNT, I'm glad it's over. Mount Pain will stick with you. It's a huge and rather tough map, with this adventurous feeling that other O'Brien's maps also possess. You start inside an underground complex of sort, where you are under constant attack by zombies of all kinds.  Next comes a poisonous sewer, which is by far my least favourite part of the level. I get it's confusing by design, where your thoughts should be "will I make it to the next radsuit?", but I just find it boring and repetitive. At least it ends with a good fight in the so called "disaster area".

Of course, the main highlight is the part outside, a hazardous courtyard overlooking the titular Mount Pain, a hill in the distance that spawns lost souls. Once again, a grand scale fight at the end is a staple of O'Brien and I see him as TNT in a nutshell - impressive vision with mixed results. Mount Pain is the best map of his and one of the stand-outs of the wad.

This is pure Plutonia and that's enough of a recommendation for me. Heavy reliance on revenants to provide challenge and rockets as a mean to overcome it is a gameplay style that the Casalis mastered, but I feel like it lacks the edge that Plutonia (or Caribbean for that matter) had. 

Heck starts in a 4-way hub, where you need to collect three keys to unlock the exit. The Courtyard-inspired tunnels are kinda forgettable (just shotgunners behind every corner plus an archvile or two), but the rest is much better. There's a pit with pinkies that releases revenants once you grab a key and a fight in a cave network against several pain elementals, an archvile and another revenant ambush.

TNT has an issue with sprawl, so a map this quick and to the point is always welcomed.

This would have been much better, if there was a plasma rifle on UV. Seriously, I exited the map with 300 cells and no way to use it, while having to ration shells and rockets. TNT is surprisingly well balanced when pistol-starting a map, but this is a sole outlier. Anyways, River Styx is a slow crawl through a temple, filled with lava that for some reason doesn't hurt you, narrow corridors and monsters that will drain your limited ammo. I find this one rather boring and not worthy of a penultimate slot.

TNT ends on a pretty weak map, with pacing being its biggest issue. It starts with a slow puzzle, where you have to jump on the correct platform or get telefragged. It's not hard, but you have to slow to a crawl, write down what order you need to follow and then choose a correct path. It's not hard and would make sense in some other context, but at the very end of a megawad, where you likely just want to get to the end, it halts progress to a complete halt.

The rest is an underpopulated string of linear rooms and an Icon of Sin which, while not the worst, still has its share of issues. It's just so freaking janky. I doubt it was consider as an added challenge to not line-up the thing properly - to kill the final boss, you need to stand not on the top of the stairs, where your rockets fly straight towards the exposed brain (as logic might dictate), but on a non-descript step. Your projectile will pass through a wall and somehow damage the Romero's head (it's also placed too far, so no satisfying explosion for you).

Starting MAP01 of Plutonia must have been an experience in 1996. Chaingunners everywhere, a mob of revenenats guarding a rocket launcher and two archviles - the one in a crate warehouse is of little threat, since you are given a super shotgun to kill him, but the one constantly reviving a chaingunner is just evil.

While Congo offered more of a shock factor than difficulty, Well of Souls in indeed a tough map. It's heavy with traps - random crushers, collapsing floor leading to a firing squad of hitscanners and lost souls that can be accidentally released, eating up your precious ammo are your main source of concern. Then there's this part with an invisible bridge that I found confusing the first time I played this map. It's hard too, with revenants on the other side, cacodemons closing on you and little room to move.

First of all, the custom midi is outstanding. I won't hide that Plutonia Midi Pack is my favourite soundtrack, adding a flair this wad needed. As for the map itself, it's far from the best. It's very cramped, throws archvile at you with little cover, but also feature another invisible bridge, with chaingunners and revenants in front, arachnotrons from the sides and pain elementals filling the space with lost souls. This is an obvious highlight of the map, but the rest fails to live up to it.

Once you get out of the starting room, you end up in a series of cages and platforms over a pool of nukage. Monsters are everywhere, including four shotgunners around you. Yeah, this one can kill you quickly. If you survive the start, it gets much smoother - Caged is generous with resources, hitscanners, while numerous, can be killed from a distance and traps don't hit this hard. The room with barons and damaging floor is a bit too small for rocket launcher, but I think it's a solid fight.

Overall, it's an okay map.

Ghost Town can be neatly divided into 3 sections. First is a courtyard with perched chaingunners, cacodemons and mancubi. It's a frantic place, where you run around, trying to fend off attacks from many angles. Then comes another courtyard, with chaingunner turrets and a mastermind. I wasn't able to get her infighting, so I had to kill her myself, which is always a boring task. The round two with revenants and more chaingunners wasn't bad, it's easy to just run and spam rockets, the map gives you a lot of them.

The final place is a series of rooms, decorated with flesh and circuitry. The ambush of two archviles in front and chaingunners behind you is the classic Plutonia trap that, depending on your view of this wad, you'll either love or hate.

Baron's Lair was originally scored by "Sign of Evil", which is a good track, but I find it better suited for a slower, more atmospheric level. The midi pack replaces it with manic "Plusfort", a perfect accompany for a non-stop action.

MAP06 has a clear hub-based layout, with four challenges to overcome in a linear fashion. The first room, with a balcony of revenants, mancubi in a pit and arachnotrons that are revealed after pressing a switch was the hardest part, but that's because I forgot how the cube works - it gives you all the guns aside from the BFG, while I thought you only get an SSG. Once I realised I had a rocket launcher, it didn't pose much of a threat. Second comes a storage room with a ton of barrels, which, when used correctly, can decimate pain elementals and cacodemons. 

The revenant + pinkies combo was forgettable and the map ends with a cyberdemon duel. I don't think I've ever said this, but this map needs more barons - at least one, to justify its title.

A superior iteration of Dead Simple formula. Caughtyard starts similiar to Doom 2's MAP07, with several mancubi to kill, but this is where the similiarities ends. The next task is to mount the walls patrolled by revenants. This is honestly the hardest part, as there's no room to dodge and you're likely to get blocked from both sides. The goal here is to find the yellow key, which releases an archvile, teleporting between two spots (I always find this trick annoying). Now you can escape the trap, find a tunnel and not get killed by an arachnotron, whose projectiles you can't evade. It's an awful trap, one you need to be prepare for and I find little excuse for it. This aside, I like Caughtyard for improving id's original idea.

Realm is a high point of Plutonia's visuals - gray bricks, blue water and camouflage is a combination that defines the early parts of this map set. The MIDI is also great, more ambient and with a choir that gives off this ethereal hint.

The map itself is rather mediocre, though. I feel it's less difficult and more tedious. Early parts are spent killing mid-tiers with a super shotgun and the only part that is genuinely scary, the blue key ambush of chaingunners, can be cheesed by blocking one spawn spot. Before I figured this out, it was a painful fight that can leave you with little health and the very next room have you cross a 20% hurtfloor. I strongly advise hoarding up cells and rockets for the final fight - two archviles and several revenants that appear next to the exit.

True to its misspelled name, this one will butcher you. Abattoire is one of the toughest maps of Plutonia and, when adjusting for its placement, easily takes the cake. The main reason is the final room - a ring over a death pit with a balcony of chaingunners in front of you, four pairs of revenant and mancubus in the corners, imps blocking your path and no cover aside from two cubbies that only partially shield you from incoming attacks. 

Aside from this, there's also the blue key fight, a horde of imps and revenants that gush from a pair of teleporters. This one is much more entertaining to go through.

There's difficulty and there's cruel bullshit. An example of the latter is starting a map with a chaingunner behind your back. Or a part where you have to sprint past respawning chaingunners, down into a cramped sewer with several hell nobles. Did I mention you have nothing besides a shotgun and a chaingun at that point?

Exiting this shithole leaves you at a mercy of a pair of archviles, both are a royal pain to kill - one has dug in inside a building, another is placed in a way your feet are almost constantly exposed. The only saving grace is the teleporting ambush by the yellow key.

I can imagine how some kid was telling his classmates about Plutonia - this super hard Doom game and a level where there are only archviles. Indeed, the sheer shock value was Hunted's selling point. Once you peel this back, though, you end up with a pretty weak map.

At this point, we all know how MAP11 works - a confusing maze of 14 archviles, super shotgun and no health. If you keep your head cool and don't get attacked from two sides, you should be fine. Navigating through this place is the real challenge (it's a maze, after all) and I've spent more time trying to reach the exit than fighting the viles.

I generally see Plutonia as a wad that aged well, but Hunted is the exception. Also, this is probably the sole example where the track provided by the MIDI Pack isn't as good as the original - while there's nothing wrong with Lippeth's midi, it just isn't the bunny music.

True to its name, this demonic fortress of wood and blood is a quick combat challenge. It can also kill you quickly, thanks to the cyberdemon guarding the optional red key. You want to kill him, as the key opens a cubby with a BFG in the final area. This place is one of the hardest rooms so far - sniping chaingunners everywhere, very little cover and several revenants reinforced by archviles. 

Another brisk map, The Crypt has two fights that stick with you. The first one has an archvile and chaingunner escorts slowly rising from a pool of blood - it's not hard, just run away and use a corner for cover, but it's a scene that still feels threatening, even if you know what's coming. The second one is the exit arena, where you have to juggle an archvile and two pain elemental at the same time, as the former revives dead revenants, while the latter fill the place with lost souls. 

Genesis consists of a series of platforms over poisonous blood - kinda like Caged, but with wood instead of metal. The map has two phases - first you run around the place, clearing the initial enemies. Feels a bit too unfocus for my liking. The yellow key is where the map gets interesting. First you have to survive an ambush where you are surrounded by a crowd of various monsters (partial invisibility is surprisingly useful here), then deal with an archvile and shotgunners that came back to life. 

I feel like Genesis either lacks a bit of edge, or was intended to be a break map. Consider the next three maps, maybe a breather isn't such a bad idea.

Plutonia sure as hell has a weird difficulty curve, placing one of the hardest maps in the middle. Twilight is a shooting range for the 62 chaingunners (some constantly getting revived) and you are their target. It's relentless and teleport traps in narrow catwalks don't help. However, Milo was kind enough to load the map with secrets, if you are willing to take a look around (which isn't hard under fire, I know), there is health, guns and ammo that will help you surviving. The map ends with an appearance of a mastermind, but she's more of an ally here, as she can take out the monsters that appear by the exit. Speaking of which, turn left by the exit teleporter to reach the secret maps.

Twilight is an absolute bastard to play, requiring more foreknowledge than your average Plutonia map, but at the same time, I don't find it unfair. Just look out for hidden stuff and you should be victorious.

I wouldn't call this "the second hardest level", unless we talk about the very first trap with archviles teleporting behind unmarked fake walls. This one is just stupid, if you play this blind, you'll have no idea where the bastards are hiding and even if you do, whether you'll get attacked by one is a coin flip.

Cyberden works by you having to run back and forth between the northern rooms with IoS switches, the courtyard where you fight cyberdemons one by one and smaller challenge rooms that unlock the next switch in the north. Repeat this 4 times and you can access the yellow key in the middle. The cyberdemons aren't a threat if you've beaten E2M8, and beside the archvile bullshit, the one place that gave me troubles was the last room, with chaingunners, pinkies and some revenants thrown in - you have to press two switches to open a door here, so you can't just camp by the entry point. The map ends with a fake exit that unleashes a horde of revenants, you should have enough rockets and/or cells to take them out. 

So, not as hard as advertised and I don't think I'm the only one with this view, as the new midi feels soothing. The end result is a rather disappointing map that, like with Hunted, has lost its shock value it originally held.

Go 2 It is a legendary map and probably the one that popularised the concept of slaughter combat. This coked-up version of Entryway is loaded with big monsters - numerous cyberdemons, mancubi everywhere, several waves of revenants and archviles that will revive their fallen comrades. So how does it holds up? Well, even with an abundance of health and ammo, I still find it to be a challenging map. The hardest partis definitely the blue key fight, with cyberdemons, archviles in the open and whatever they resurrect from the previous fight here (which is also tough). I think I'd be much better off if I finally learn how to quickly kill a cyberdemon, as this skill would be put to a good use here (especially with several tiny rooms with cybies inside), but I've made it with saves.

One thing is certain - Go 2 It, unlike many modern slaughter map, doesn't overstay its welcome. It's not a long map, but will make you feel like a hero after completing it.

This one feels very odd. The most brutal fight is easily the blue key ambush of mancubi and revenants, due to high monster and projectile density, decorations that obstruct your movement and general cramped nature of this place. I probably died here more than in any fight of Go 2 It and I don't consider this kind of difficulty entertaining. Sure, you are given a BFG practically at the start, but I recommend saving cells for other uses. The red key fight blocks your path with revenants and it's best to delete them with a single shot. Same goes for two archviles that appear after grabbing the blue key, with one teleporting straight to the blue key arena.

Again, save as much cells as you can for the ending, where something like 40 hitscanners awaits and the only piece of armor of the entire map. Like, why couldn't it be placed earlier? This would have made the blue key room bearable.

A quick and surprisingly easy map. Sure, there's a lot of damaging slime (which uses the same flat as non-damaging one in The Omen) and chaingunner snipers in the hash-shaped room, but careful play is enough to defuse it. The only thing that managed to kill me was a narrow corridor where a hell knight teleports behind you, but that's a one-time trick. The yellow key fight, where an archvile-lead ambush teleports in, is the sole entertaining moment. If you find a secret rocket stash, you just need to send a missile barrage to win. I didn't so I had to deal with this with an SSG, which still wasn't hard. 

If you survived the ludicrous mass of imps and hitscanners at the start - congratulations, you've cleared the hardest part. 

Neurosphere was clearly inspired by The Inmost Dens, with its detailed layout, tan brick usage and heavy presence of chaingunners. It feels more compact and streamlined, with less wandering around. Aside from the start, the high point is the blue key security (archvile included), which is best to rush with an easy to find BFG. Good map overall.

Another brutal map, this one feels very tight with space, especially early on, where you have to dodge revenant missiles in either narrow hallways, or on damaging floors. Once you go outside, it gets a bit easier - you are given a BFG to make some space. It's very useful in the yellow key room (with an inverted pyramid in the middle - cool design) and small box you are teleported to at the end. Both of them contain archviles and no place to hide, so it's best to save a shot for each. I like this map a lot, my sole complain is the cyberdemon final boss, he's just a time sink to take out.

There's something off about Death Domain. I feel like this one tries to be innovative, but the end results are mixed at best. Of course, everyone remembers the part with barons randomly teleporting around a balcony, though I personally do for the wrong reasons. There's more questionable stuff, like the start with chaingunners and arachnotrons immediately opening fire or a hitscanner trap, which is fine as a concept (grab a partial invisibility and survive), but you can just run away. Oh, don't forget about the revenants that appear in the pits, they are both useless and sluggish to kill, especially if you wasted rockets earlier. There's more ammo behind the blue key door, but the key is in one of the pits and there isn't really anything to use the resources on.

Death Domain is one of the weakest maps in Plutonia.

Another map closely inspired by the original games, this time the Casalis rework Circle of Death. I think I prefer the original, it's definitely more memorable. Don't get me wrong, Slayer isn't bad, there's little that stuck with me besides referencing a Doom 2 map that I like.

Aren't we supposed to be in Hell now? Impossible Mission looks more like something from the first episode, being a slime processing facility in a rocky terrain. The combat feels slow, as you either creep through corridors, taking out chaingunner traps, or fight in relatively spacious arenas. The sole exception is the yellow key fight. Chaingunners behind you, snipers of several kinds, pain elementals filling the place with lost souls - the only thing it lacks is an archvile or two for a full Plutonia experience. At least the midi is good.

I don't like saying what is and isn't Plutonia, but still, Tombstone sticks out like a sore thumb. It's large, open and heavy on exploration, oftentimes to its detriment. Like, not only you need to search the place for all three keys that opens the doors to the exit, but also press three coloured scattered around the map that unlock the exit teleporter. This does feel like artificially extending the map.

As for the combat, it's mostly incidental with an overrepresentation of revenants and zombies of all three kinds. The one fights that I like is when two columns lower, revealing a pair of archviles and two mobs of revenants. The start is also hectic, where the map's open nature makes you fending off attacks from several sides, but once this is done with, Tombstone turns into a corridor crawl.

An underground cavern with toxic blood at the bottom, vertical architecture and tough fight, all clearly inspired by Romero's The Living End. 

Pro tip, after loading the map, turn 180 degrees and run straight through the wall - a secret here will provide ammo and health that you'll need early on and becomes inaccessible once you ride down. The gameplay is your standard MAP29 stuff, where you try not to fall down or get blocked on narrow ledges. The first part of the map is not bad, you are attacked by pain elementals, archviles and revenants, but even with limited space, you can find a spot to fight them comfortably. The other part is a different story. Pretty much until the end you are at the mercy of a cyberdemon that sits on the other side of the cave, while you have to climb along the perimeter and somehow deal with a baron that blocks your path and a ton of chaingunners. If you survive this, you still have a cyberdemon to kill, there's little space and no BFG, so you have to make this U-shaped pattern up-close, which I hated at first, but in hindsight, I think is a good concept (though getting insta-killed when teleporting to his balcony isn't).

This feels like Dario made this one out of discarded pieces of another maps, because The Temple of Darkness is very clearly made of three separate parts connected by teleporters. The map starts in a trench with shotgunners above - it's a lottery how much health you manage to hold on. Then comes a fight against a group of hell knights in confined space. This one isn't bad, actually, trying to outrun them and find a spot to send a rocket into a crowd is makes this a tense encounter.

The final part is the largest, but also most unkind. It starts with you teleporting in with revenants in your face and hitscanners all around. Then you need to carefully walk down on pillars over a lake of lava while defending from cacodemons and pain elementals. But one moment that takes the cake when it comes to pure spitefulness is at the end, when you enter a teleport pad and warp in with 8 chaingunners behind your back. I don't like this one, like Onslaught, it crosses the line between challenge and bullshit.

Another large and open map. It's easy to run out of ammo if you don't approach this with some sort of a plan, the shotgunners inside the titular bunker are a reliable supply of shells. While the fights offer this aggression that Plutonia is known for, I believe I've spent more time getting around the place instead of killing monsters.

I know a lot of people dislike Bunker, but I personally don't mind it that much.

Milo must have really like The Living End, since he made two maps inspired by it, with Anti-Christ being the better of the pair. I feel like it captures the original's spirit, while ramping up the difficulty. Space is even more limited, there are loads of chaingunners (including one that constantly respawns) and pain elementals constantly fill the air with lost souls. On the other hand, there's an early BFG and two invulnerability spheres, which help a lot. I try to save one for the blue key trap, which encapsulates Anti-Christ's approach to combat: a small platform that gets filled with enemies, while chaingunners shoot from a ledge.

The map ends with a mastermind, so save enough cells to finish her off quickly. I like this one a lot, E3 of Plutonia does tend to feature bigger maps, so a return to small, combat-centric levels is appreciated.

Sewer maps are rarely pretty, but I'm impressed about it's detailed architecture. MAP28 utilises small steps to create pipes or pits and it uses a lot of 45 and 90-degrees angles - normally I'd complain about it being square, but there's definitely an aesthetic here and I think it works.

Combat-wise, it's okay, relatively easy by Plutonia standards, because you are loaded with cells and rockets. The best fights are the two ambushes, where monsters pour out of a teleporter. The ending reprises that one fight from Death Domain, but with archviles this time. Not the best way to end a map, but it's a solid one that gives you momentum before the penultimate one.

You can't make a city map without getting compared to Downtown. Oddysey of Noises is definitely an improvement, with more straightforward design, less backtracking and more ammo. It still took me half an hour, as I forgot where the red key wad. I was wandering around the streets taking out chaingunner snipers (who are the biggest threat here), before realising I had to run through the stairs near the cyberdemon pit. From that point forward, it was a breeze. The traps don't hit as hard as some earlier levels and while the map periodically spawns monsters to keep you busy, you are always well-supplied to defend yourself.

I think this one needed a bit more edge to justify its runtime.

Easily the best of all three Icon of Sin maps in official Doom wads. It starts with a short warm-up with barons and two archviles, then you enter the boss fight. Rush the cyberdemon with a BFG, activate the lift and send three rockets into the hole in Gatekeeper's forehead. Compared to Doom 2, it's more compact and the lift takes less time to lower and raise. The end result is a quick map and finally a wad ending on a high note.

First of all, some elements here received a holiday makeover. Monsters wear Santa's hats, your shotgun have a nice bow tied around its barrel and medikits have been replaced by presents. Still, all this is merely visual and everything function as it should.

MAP01 starts in an absolutely adorable house by a river. This place feels cosy, but you won't be staying here forever. Looking around the place, you'll grab a shotgun on the ground floor and encounter the titular Unexpected Visitor - Santa Claus. With a gun. 

The map proper is an open field with enemies all around, mostly imps, hitscanners and pinkies. The only tough part are the revenants by the exit, as you only have a shotgun, chaingun and a secret berserk pack (hitting imps with a candy cane so hard they explode is something I find amusing). In the end, the visual side is the main star here, with combat being functional.

I think this one has a bit of an inconsistent tone and I'm not talking about scoring a map with "Last Christmas". Early on it feels slow, as you are restricted to a pistol and a shotgun with little ammo, while having to fight a lot of imps and zombie-turned-Santas. Then, when platforming on icy pillars (thank God it's -cl2, a Boom wad would no doubt made them slippery), you are ambushed by a row of monsters that are dumb enough to stand by explosive barrels. Jumping to their alcove gives you a rocket launcher and releases the most cursed enemy I've seen in a while - a cacodemon turned into a christmas tree ornament. This unholy abomination will no doubt haunt my nightmares. I do like how it cracks when killed, though. There's one more new monster here and that's this gnome or elf or whatever that replaces the Nazi and behaves the same.

The big climactic fight by the exit can be easily exploited with an invuln and a secret plasma - beat this, massacre more gnomes in a corridor and the map is done. The second half is a great power trip, I just wish the start was similiar.

The map is broken. A pillar with the yellow key is supposed to lower when approached, but for some reason it doesn't. It's best to switch to Boom compatibility for this one, as this seems to work. You can still complete it by jumping from cliffs to the final area, a method that was probably unintentional. It's a shame it doesn't work as intended, because Evil of Snow is a strong map and would have been my favourite otherwise.

The setting might be cold, but it reminds me of the steamy jungles of Amazon. Evil of Snow takes cues from Plutonia, with its compact layout and merciless archvile use. One thing you won't find in Casalis' works is its interconnected nature. Throughtout its run, Evil of Snow opens new shortcuts that allows you to move more freely. It would probably me my favourite map of the wad had it worked correctly, but a fatal flaw pushes it to the bottom of the list.

This one feels extremally dated. Aside from the mass of enemies at the start, the combat is just going from one square room to another and killing everything that gets in your sight. I hoped something will happen when I made my way to a large frozen lake with a rocket launcher in the middle, but nope, only a handful of cacodemons and some revenants. The map is also ugly as fuck, with everything being blocky and built of either this blueish-white ice or green-white bricks.

Well, I've died here a bit, I'm not ashamed to admit it. Yule Probably Die is a small and tightly-designed arena that greets you with a cyberdemon and archvile on an 8-shaped elevated platform. It's rather restricted when it comes to resources, especially since the only way forward requires you to snatch the yellow key from under cybie's hooves. With the key in hand, you can drop down to the outside perimeter and fight revenants, barons and two archviles that guard a pair of switches. The final obstacle is yet another vile, this time surrounded by lost souls and gnomes. Finish them off, reach a cabin and this winter adventure is over.

I like this one, it's one of those short and punchy maps I've always enjoyed.

This is an ending map with no gameplay. Just sit in your armchair, watch some TV and relax.

Skulltiverse opens up in a storage yard by a dock. The whole atmosphere of breaking into an abandoned warehouse under the cover of night works great to build an atmosphere. After dispatching early enemies, you'll notice a blue circle. This is the titular skullgate - a portal that require a blue skull to activate. I don't think I've ever seen something like this, so this one thing immediately got me interested.

Skullgate Central is focused on chaingun, with enemies consisting of zombies, chaingunners, imps and pinkies. The big fight outside is the high point when it comes to action, with almost no cover it's not trivial. You'll need a search the map for the red and yellow keys before you can get the blue skull, they are all in reasonable places and their guardians shouldn't pose a threat if you're careful.

The wad already starts strong, with its opening map explaining the concept and providing an enjoyable experience.

This one could have been MAP01 of any wad - a simple techbase with some crates outside, a cast of 41 monsters (with the strongest one being a single revenant) and a combination of shotgun and pistol as your primary means of defense (there's not enough shells to kill everything). There are some oddities here, like an archvile that exists only to die at the start of a map and leave his corpse to find, a sewer that was clearly inspired by Underhalls (including an unreachable super shotgun) and a hole in a wall that shoots the blue skull. All these weird elements adds to a map that would have otherwise been an unremarkable level.

Nimiauredhel is not a mapper I recognise and their only contribution (according to Doomwiki, at least) are two maps in Skulltiverse. Get Rectangular is, well orthogonal, but a varied texture usage makes it actually pretty appealing - like the beige room that holds the red key. The combat here gives you both a shotgun and a chaingun, while providing enough ammo to take blast through weak opposition. I like the fight by the blue key, where hitscanners start spawning around you, less so the cacodemons that are place outside the playable boundaries and can only be shot through small windows.

The blue sky, gray rocks and techbases reminds me of Valiant E1. Bilis has a nasty start: a pain elemental in front of you and inactive chaingunner behind your back. I tried killing the chaingunner with a pistol, but it doesn't always work. Once again, the map is limited to basic zombie weapons (there's also a secret rocket launcher, but with almost no ammo). Most of the opposition consists of zombies, imps and pinkies, all fought in rather small rooms. The exception is the final fight, where hitscanners and some bigger monsters teleport to the starting area.

Death Bear made great maps for PUSS IX and Solar Struggle (and a weaker one for PRCP 2, but let's not return there), so I had high expectations and I'm glad they were met.

Green Tech's Embrace is set in a polluted factory under a green sky. Once again, Valiant comes to mind, this time its third episode. It's a detailed map that uses a lot of verticality to move around. I was a bit confused by the progression, as both keys that unlock the blue skull are on the higher levels of the map and I missed an elevator, but with this done, the rest went smoothely. The combat at this point of the wad is still rather easy, but save your rockets - you're yet to find a super shotgun and gunning down hell knight or mancubi with a regular shotgun can feel grindy.

Good midi, but I think it is a bit too loud. Otherwise, a high-energy soundtrack would have been a great fit for this map - a small dilapidated factory, with spilled nukage, random crushers and a ton of explosive barrels. It's a rather short map that should wrap up in 5 minutes, but I enjoyed every minute of it. My favourite part is a trap that drops you into a pit with pinkies - they can be thinned out with barrels and I've punched out the rest with a berserk pack.

It's the Mancubian Candidate from Valiant, but this time you are defending an arachnotron - if it dies before grabbing the blue skull, a metric ton of archviles will teleport in. Your job is to overcome four rooms that puts your spider VIP in the centre and spawns monsters around (the hub and three that holds keys), while limiting you to a rocket launcher and a super shotgun. Compared to its Valiant inspiration, Constant Companion feels cramped, with monsters attacking from several sides and one of two available weapons producing splash damage. 

Once you pick up all the keys, you can enter a pit in the middle of the map, where you have to kill four mancubi while avoiding the arachnotron that also appears here. I like the colourful visual and Master Levels midi was not something I expected, though it fits a map that isn't the most serious one. It's a solid experience, though I think I prefer the original.