Doom Travelogues 01: Even Deeper

So, whad’ya know? I did another one of these. The quest continues here in Doomville, where I’m currently knee deep in year nine of the Doomworld “10 Years” feature. The end is in sight, but there’s still plenty of Dooming to be had before the beast is finally slain. Two more WADs are under my belt this week, which, I know what you’re thinking, doesn't sound like much. But consider that that accounts for 48 individual levels. Now consider how many levels you've played this week. Now go take a long walk off a short pier. Anyway, the victims this week are 2002: A Doom Odyssey and Caverns of Darkness, and, wouldn't you just know it, I liked one of them more than the other. They have pretty different goals, really, with one striking out on its own, the other paying homage, so they make for a pretty interesting contrast. Which was completely intentional on my part and in no way serendipitous happenstance. Well then, now that that's settled, and without further ado...

Much Ado About ADO

This E1M1 homage, oddly enough, is found about midway through E3M7.

2002: A Doom Odyssey is a full, four-episode replacement for Ultimate Doom, making it something of a rarity, as Doom 2 is by far the more popular point of origin for large-scale megaWADs. Like most mapsets of this size, it’s a team effort, though Paul Corfiatis, as the project lead, is by far its largest single contributor, credited with the creation of new textures and music for the WAD as well as around half its maps. There’s a shell of a story attached to these levels, full of typos and bad grammar, almost a requisite with Doom, which isn’t really worth mentioning apart from the fact that the fourth episode’s storyline involves Doomguy saving his wife Stephanie from the nefarious Tommy the Trooper. That tells you about all you need to know.

Unfortunately ADO does its damnedest to give a bad first impression. Even by 2002, there were a lot of good Episode 1 replacement WADs out there, and ADO’s E1 doesn't do a whole lot to distinguish itself from the pack. It comes off as a pretty standard set of E1-inspired maps, often with id architecture awkwardly copy/pasted in. There are several references to the E1M3 “Soul Sphere on a Pedestal,” for instance. It doesn't help that the gameplay throughout this section of the WAD is mostly subdued, presenting challenging encounters intermittently at best.

My reward for beating Episode 4. Just confirming what I already knew, of course.

Thankfully things do start picking up in Episode 2, with less frequent id-riffing and a greater degree of difficulty on display. On the whole it also shows a greater sense of restraint with health and ammo than the original levels, particularly with its distribution of rockets and cells. The regrettable downside is that at some point you’ll be forced into shotgunning packs of Barons and/or Cacos, which is the Doom equivalent of watching paint dry. On the extreme end of the difficulty curve is Chris Hansen’s E4M3, a level with four different but equally uncomfortably close-quarters Baron fights.

On the whole, ADO is a totally serviceable set of OG Doom maps that perhaps highlights why full Doom replacements weren’t and aren’t more common. Fighting Cacos and Barons gets pretty tiresome by the end, but they were the only toughs in Doom apart from the bosses, so you kind of have to use them. Less understandable is the map design, with a fair amount of naked key-hunting and too little of interest to look at. Joe Pallai’s E4M6, an excellent green marble castle romp and his only level in the set, throws into stark relief just how forgettable much of this excursion is. The custom music tracks are a welcome addition, but I don’t think I’ll be in any hurry to go back to this WAD.

Journey to the Center of the WAD

Caverns of Darkness is a 12-level Doom 2 partial conversion from a mapmaking outfit called The Chaos Crew. It makes use of some advanced engine features and is easiest to get running these days with the use of a separate ZDoom patch available at the idgames archive. In addition to some map tricks you won’t see in the vanilla Doom 2 executable, Caverns of Darkness also features a number of modified enemies and a single new weapon. The story, such as it is, involves, you guessed it, a demon invasion, this time originating from a UAC mining facility that may be more than it seems. This setup is all the justification needed to take you on a trip through a number of attractive subterranean Doom maps.

Man, you guys may wanna call a plumber. This leak looks pretty serious.

Though CoD is a team effort, there’s no doubt that Chris Lutz, who produced nine of the WAD’s twelve maps, is the real star of the show. That’s not to disparage Emil Brundage or Nokturnus (though I will mention that MAP09 by Nokturnus is a real bastard), who both turn in solid work with the remaining three maps, but Lutz’s work is really something else entirely. Lutz has an eye for aesthetics and attention to detail that you will seldom see in other mapmakers. He’s also a wizard when it comes to using the 3D bridge effect to seamlessly fake 3D spaces.

The mapset really catapults into must-play territory halfway through with the one-two punch of Perdition’s Abyss and Lava Processing (MAP06 & MAP07). This is where the WAD leaves the surface world behind, and the decor of these levels I can only describe as “steampunk lava stronghold". It’s very reminiscent of Quake (think E1M6 or DM4), though never in a derivative sense, with dark, ancient-looking architecture interwoven with lava. Apart from just looking and playing great, these levels have a few memorable set pieces, such as the realization in MAP06 that you have to power a generator to open a gate, or accidentally resurrecting a Baron in MAP07.

Spoiler: You will not leave here without fighting numerous demons.

CoD introduces a few new enemies and a weapon, with mixed results. The new Rocket Zombiemen and Inviso-Knights in particular seem somewhat ill-conceived. Both of these bad boys can basically ruin your day before you even know what’s happening, and the only defense is memorizing where they appear. The rest of the WAD’s additions seem fine. Spectral Arch-Viles appear with the ability to summon ethereal minions, and all human baddies have a chance on death to burst open, releasing a Lost Soul. The new weapon is an insanely powerful “BFG Fist” that can one-shot anything provided you can get close enough to punch it.

Caverns of Darkness is a really slick package. It has a consistent theme, plays well, and makes smart use of its extra engine features (like scripting and ambient sound). Even just walking through these levels with monsters disabled is worth the time, as they’re quite pretty, especially later on. Even MAP09, which is almost crushingly long and difficult, isn't bad enough to weigh down the package as a whole. In other words, it’s definitely worth a spin.

Postscript... and Tear!

Well alright then, another week done and dusted. Like I said last time, I can definitely see myself doing more of these, though I doubt I’ll be doing write-ups for every WAD I play or even every large WAD I play. I’ll probably keep this to level sets that make an impression on me in one way or another, and try to keep the format loose so as to not get terribly bored with doing them at some point. At any rate, this is all to be ironed out over time, I’m sure, so, in the interim, thanks for reading.