Omega Tyrant

My map ratings for Ultimate Doom, on a 0-10* scale for how much I like the map and 0-10^ scale for how difficult I found it. An explanation of the scale can be found here. Difficulty here is on UV with fast monsters and Pistol starting every map, the difficulty rating with normal monsters would generally be somewhere around half (lower end for maps with heavy hitscan usage).

EPISODE 1 - Knee Deep In The Dead:

Map                                     |Rating    |Difficulty|Comments

E1M1 Hangar                     |7*           |2^           |10* as a first map ever played, but isn't as engaging for the experienced
E1M2 Nuclear Plant:         |4*           |2^           |
E1M3 Toxin Refinery         |9*           |4^           |Probably the best utilization of secrets in commercial Doom
E1M9 Military Base           |5*           |6^           |Hard start and resources aren't plentiful even with the Chaingun secret
E1M4 Command Control |5*           |3^           |The start can be lethal, but the rest of the map is free
E1M5 Phobos Lab             |10*         |4^           |Suspense is perfect for this map, though would still rate it a 10 without it
E1M6 Central Processing |8*           |5^           |That ending room is intimidating with fast monsters
E1M7 Computer Station   |6*          |4^           |
E1M8 Phobos Anomaly    |5*           |2^           |Aged poorly, but is so iconic and atmosphere is still top notch

AVERAGE: 6.56* | 3.67^ : I agree with the common opinion that Episode 1 is the best, and is still fun even with its limited enemy variety, making it farther impressive

EPISODE 2 - The Shores Of Hell:

Map                                         |Rating    |Difficulty|Comments

E2M1 Deimos Anomaly        |4*           |3^           |
E2M2 Containment Area      |4*           |2^          |Not a fan of the crate maze and rest of map is boring
E2M3 Refinery                        |2*           |5^          |Rating tries to ignore the horrible choice of Intermission for its track
E2M4 Deimos Lab                  |7*           |4^          |
E2M5 Command Center       |3*           |5^ (6^)   |Second difficulty rating is for 100%, the secret exit is bullshit with fast monsters
E2M9 Fortress Of Mystery    |1*           |4^          |A joke of a map, but a room of fast Cacos is pretty deadly
E2M6 Halls Of The Damned |10*         |6^          |The closest the original Doom gets to survival horror
E2M7 Spawning Vats             |5*           |4^          |
E2M8 Tower Of Babel           |5*            |2^         |Aged terribly, but gets credit for the iconic first experience with it

AVERAGE: 4.56* | 3.89^ (4.00^ for 100%) : Map quality becomes a lot more inconsistent, and Halls Of The Damned carries the episode for me

EPISODE 3 - Inferno:

Map                                      |Rating    |Difficulty|Comments

E3M1 Hell Keep                 |1*            |2^           |Even fast monsters can't make this map remotely engaging
E3M2 Slough Of Despair  |4*           |5^            |Would be quite brutal without prior knowledge
E3M3 Pandemonium        |7*           |4^            |
E3M4 House Of Pain         |8*           |4^            |The difficulty would notch up if you don't know to gun for Invulnerability at start
E3M5 Unholy Cathedral   |3*           |4^            |
E3M6 Mt. Erebus               |8*           |5^            |Sandy shown he can make a good sandbox map here, what happened in Doom 2?
E3M9 Warrens                   |4*           |3^            |Best secret map conceptually, but half of it is still Hell Keep and has a softlock
E3M7 Limbo                       |5*           |4^            |Seems quite unpopular but I don't hate it, rather survival horrorish on Pistol start
E3M8 Dis                            |1*            |1^            |Arguably even easier with fast monsters, since the Cacos and Baron infight better

AVERAGE: 4.56* | 3.56^ : I find it on par with the prior episode, with again inconsistent map quality

EPISODE 4 - Thy Flesh Consumed:

Map                                            |Rating    |Difficulty|Comments

E4M1 Hell Beneath                  |3*           |6^           |I like what it was going for, but feels too RNG with heavy Shotgunner usage
E4M2 Perfect Hatred               |9*           |6^           |A masterclass on how to effectively utilize the Doom 1 bestiary
E4M9 Fear                                 |3*            |5^           |Action is way too front-loaded, and those teleporters are death
E4M3 Sever The Wicked         |6*            |4^           |If you don't grab Invuln ASAP at start you die, but is otherwise not hard
E4M4 Unruly Evil                      |2*            |4^           |Has a bit of teeth on Pistol start/fast monsters, but still such a nothing map
E4M5 They Will Repent           |5*            |4^           |
E4M6 Against Thee Wickedly |8*            |7^           |No armor on UV is overly harsh, should have been the final map
E4M7 And Hell Followed         |4*            |3^           |Such a misuse of Sinister here
E4M8 Unto The Cruel               |4*           |3^           |Why was this the final map?

AVERAGE: 4.89* | 4.67^ : Still inconsistent map quality, and difficulty is erratic too, but the lows aren't as bad

OVERALL AVERAGE: 5.14* / 3.94^ : Episode 1 certainly carries the first Doom, and there are a fair share of awful maps, though there are still gems after Episode 1 that hold up today. While notoriously easy normally, it does provide a fair challenge with fast monsters, aside from a few spots not being properly balanced for it.

Gold medal: Phobos Lab

Silver Medal: Halls Of The Damned

Bronze Medal: Perfect Hatred

Just missed the podium: Toxin Refinery

Gonna also rank the Playstation exclusive maps here, with the difficulty being for fast monsters on a Pistol start:

Map                           |Rating     |Difficulty|Comments
Hell Gate                   |3*           |2^           |Even with fast monsters this wasn't any challenging, but it's inoffensive
Hell Keep                  |5*            |9^           |Very mixed feelings, Hell Beneath was at least nice enough to give you armor
Twilight Descends   |10*         |5^           |My absolute favorite commercial map, a much more fitting penultimate map than E4M7
The Marshes            |4*            |3^          |Aged bad like any Cyberdemon duel map but was a nice secret in context of PSX Doom
Threshold Of Pain   |9*           |8^           |Final battle is brilliant, and is absolutely brutal with fast monsters
The Mansion            |8*           |4^           |Finally a worthy secret map, looks great, unique, memorable, and is fun.
Club Doom               |6*           |2^ (5^)   |Second rating is if you don't cheese it and fight the Revenants in the open.
Redemption Denied|2*           |2^ (3^)   |Second rating is if you intentionally avoid making the Masterminds infight, terrible final map but at least it's not the Icon Of Sin

Some of these PSX maps are certainly worth checking out, whether in their individual recreations out there or through the PSXCE. A big shame these maps weren't actually a part of the original games, Twilight Descends and Threshold Of Pain made such a vastly better ending to the first Doom (even if the latter uses Doom 2 stuff), while the Mansion and Club Doom shown what the secret maps should have been like. Also would have loved if these maps got more speedrunning attention.

I'm rating the Sigil maps here too, with difficulty also being based on Pistol starting with fast monsters:

Episode 5 - Sigil:

Map                                                 |Rating    |Difficulty|Comments

E5M1 Baphomet's Demense      |6*           |4^            |
E5M2 Sheol                                   |5*            |5^           |Telefragging the Cyber is death if you mistime it but worth it
E5M3 Cages Of The Damned     |4*           |5^            |That Berserk + Supercharge secret really takes the bite out of the later half
E5M4 Paths of Wretchedness    |6*           |6^            |That crusher section is so damn nerve-wracking
E5M5 Abaddon's Void                 |10*         |7^            |One of the most oppressive maps I ever played and has the action to match
E5M6 Unspeakable Persecution|7*           |7^           |The Cyber labyrinth at the end is a really cool setpiece
E5M9 Realm Of Iblis                     |4*           |6^           |Reeks of being a reject map like the Doom 1 secret maps
E5M7 Nightmare Underworld    |8*           |8^           |This map is deadly all the way through and resources will always be tight
E5M8 Halls of Perdition               |5*           |6^           |Not an inspired final map but is ok

AVERAGE: 6.11* / 6.00^

May not have met the lofty expectations it had but still a really solid piece of work, Romero did succeed in crafting  an oppressive-feeling hell atmosphere, and shown his skills at getting challenge out of the Doom 1 bestiary without resorting to bullshit measures; even without fast monsters I found Sigil on par with Plutonia in difficulty, if not harder. I do appreciate when maps do make resource management a serious factor, which Sigil does well without ever going as extreme as Hell Beneath and PSX Hell Keep did.