I feel like writing about DOOM, to relax a bit in between bitching at Ayn Rand's work. Let's go through The Ultimate DOOM and DOOM II, and review each level along the way, shall we? In the proper order, of course; DOOM Episodes 1-3, then DOOM II, then Thy Flesh Consumed. No Final DOOM because fuck Final DOOM. Playing on UV -fast. (I feel like Ultraviolence is the best difficulty to review DOOM on because it feels like the most intended way to play, and I want to use the -fast tag because I just recently ran through all these games on Ultraviolence and don't want to get bored. It should be noted that -fast does arguably fuck up the balance in places but whatever, I like it.) Oh, and I'll be using the GZDOOM sourceport with the software renderer, running at 1080p, full mouselook, no graphical bells and whistles. TEXTURE FILTER PLAYERS PLEASE LEAVE.
With that out of the way, let's tuck in to one of the greatest games ever made, starting with the shareware: Knee Deep in the Dead.
Episode 1, Mission 1: Hangar, by John Romero, is a perfect introduction to what DOOM is and how it works, it's a tight little chestnut of a level that introduces the player immediately to hitscan and projectile enemies, health and armor pickups, nukage, and explosive barrels, and at the same time sneaks in some nifty little secrets.
The level opens in a fairly wide room carefully crafted to utterly blow the mind of the average PC gamer in 1992: you spawn in looking at a change in floor elevation with a raised patch of ceiling above it, neither of which were possible in previous attempts at realtime 3D engines. To the right is a window looking out on an outdoor courtyard, featuring a glorious mountain view in the distance. I think this may have been the first instance of a skybox being used in a video game; a cursory search was unable to turn up any resources with which I could confirm or deny this suspicion, but either way it's a dizzyingly impressive view for the time, and the game drops it right on you in the very first room. Clearly id wanted to make a hell of an impression, and knew just how to do it.
At the same time the room has some health and armor bonuses scattered around, allowing players to quickly familiarize themselves with their value, and across from the window is a separate area of the room containing, at least on Ultraviolence, some hitscan enemies; namely, Former Sergeants, or "Shotgunners" as the community often refers to them.
These guys are probably the most dangerous enemy in the game, not counting bosses, because they hit like a truck and can do so from a distance, without the opportunity to dodge around a slow-moving projectile. They're all the more dangerous with the -fast modifier, allowing them to attack more often and with less warning, and it's certainly a bit of a task to take out at least 3 of them armed with just a pistol; but the reward is sweet, as they'll drop their shotguns on death, allowing you to pick up the real workhorse weapon of the game before ever opening a door. And you'll need it moving forward, Ultraviolence doesn't fuck around with its enemy placement. A quick way to dispatch low-health enemies is absolutely essential to survival, making the shotgun's placement in the first room an important part of keeping this difficulty level balanced.
Moving on, we'll ignore the secrets for now and check out the next room, which is a much more standard DOOM encounter; on lower difficulties, it's the first one, and really sets the tone for what the player can expect moving forward. A loose scattering of enemies, some in plain view, some just out of sight, with a mix of high-priority shotgunners and lower-priority Former Humans, who go down about as quickly but have much lower DPS. There's a little sectioned-off patch in the middle of the room which serves both to draw the player's attention to the first enemies that will be firing on them, and provide a patch of cover as the fight progresses. These are the basics of what make for engaging combat in DOOM; a varied resistance to make the player think about who to shoot first, and just enough environmental variance to keep things interesting without becoming cluttered or overcomplicated. This room also shows off some of the game's cooler textures, computer screens and whatnot, very much of note to any aspiring mapmakers out there.
Speaking of mapmaking, E1M1 displays a lot of what would come to be the fundamental rules of making DOOM maps, as well as useful tips and tricks for polishing up levels; use elevation changes to demarcate distinct sections of the area, as well as to make changes in floor and wall texture feel organic, place "sorbet" textures between patches of wall to hide seams, and around doors to give a feeling of solidity to the architecture, create distinct encounter spaces strung together with more relaxed stretches of pathing, etc etc etc. E1M1 should be the first stop for any budding mapmaker; turn on IDDQD and just examine all the little details of it, take it all in, learn from it.
Moving on, the next major room features something new to shake up the combat: hurtfloors. The main portion of this room is a zigzagging platform suspended over a pit of hazardous nuclear waste, keeping players on their toes as they must now navigate combat within a limited portion of the room or face the consequences. this room also sees the introduction of Imps, who are placed far away from the player on a high platform, with hitscanners sitting closer, so that they're unlikely to be killed before getting a chance to fire off a slow-moving, easily-avoided projectile. These guys aren't much of a threat in this encounter, but soon enough they'll be peppered in at the most inconvenient times, and you'll need to know what their deal is.
This room also contains multiple secrets, so now seems like a good time to talk about those.
Of particular note is the courtyard, a secret path which can be entered from either end depending on just how eagle-eyed the player is. The button to open the entrance end is located in the first shotgunner encounter, on the back of a pillar, and the exit is a barely-concealed fake wall in the nukage pit room. If you happen to find the first entrance, you'll be introduced to one of the most important aspects of DOOM's level design: ambushing hordes hidden behind walls, set up to jump out at you when you go for the Super Armor. Don't trust those pickups, kids, you don't know who's watching them. This area also gives the player a nice view of the facility from the outside, which I cannot stress enough was absolutely mind-shattering at the time. You start the level inside a building, but find the right button and you can go outside and it even looks like a proper 3D building and stuff! Sure, it's a big gray rectangle, but it was a big gray rectangle that nobody saw coming in 1992. Additionally worth mentioning is the secret within a secret in the nukage pit room, letting everyone know to keep a sharp eye out at all times, even inside secrets.
And to polish it off, the final room before the exit contains a dead simple, elegant ambush in the form of a bunch of hitscanners hiding behind a couple corners. Because sometimes it doesn't need to be fancy, sometimes a bunch of zombie gunners crouching behind a doorway is enough. This time around there are some conveniently placed explosive barrels which can really help you out of this scrape, if you're fast enough at thinking on your feet.
Aside from being the perfect introduction to DOOM, E1M1 is also a pretty damn good deathmatch map; there are a number of distinct areas that make for interesting arenas, strung together in a pretty open and freeform way, but not without some nooks for the sneakier among us to hide in, and the inclusion of an outdoor area makes for some nice visual variety.
The whole thing just flows perfectly and is so fun to run through, in singleplayer or multiplayer, and I really couldn't have asked for a better opener. E1M1 is not just one of the most important levels in the history of DOOM, it's one of the most important levels in the history of video games, and it gets a 5/5.
With that out of the way, let's tuck in to one of the greatest games ever made, starting with the shareware: Knee Deep in the Dead.
Episode 1, Mission 1: Hangar, by John Romero, is a perfect introduction to what DOOM is and how it works, it's a tight little chestnut of a level that introduces the player immediately to hitscan and projectile enemies, health and armor pickups, nukage, and explosive barrels, and at the same time sneaks in some nifty little secrets.
The level opens in a fairly wide room carefully crafted to utterly blow the mind of the average PC gamer in 1992: you spawn in looking at a change in floor elevation with a raised patch of ceiling above it, neither of which were possible in previous attempts at realtime 3D engines. To the right is a window looking out on an outdoor courtyard, featuring a glorious mountain view in the distance. I think this may have been the first instance of a skybox being used in a video game; a cursory search was unable to turn up any resources with which I could confirm or deny this suspicion, but either way it's a dizzyingly impressive view for the time, and the game drops it right on you in the very first room. Clearly id wanted to make a hell of an impression, and knew just how to do it.
At the same time the room has some health and armor bonuses scattered around, allowing players to quickly familiarize themselves with their value, and across from the window is a separate area of the room containing, at least on Ultraviolence, some hitscan enemies; namely, Former Sergeants, or "Shotgunners" as the community often refers to them.
These guys are probably the most dangerous enemy in the game, not counting bosses, because they hit like a truck and can do so from a distance, without the opportunity to dodge around a slow-moving projectile. They're all the more dangerous with the -fast modifier, allowing them to attack more often and with less warning, and it's certainly a bit of a task to take out at least 3 of them armed with just a pistol; but the reward is sweet, as they'll drop their shotguns on death, allowing you to pick up the real workhorse weapon of the game before ever opening a door. And you'll need it moving forward, Ultraviolence doesn't fuck around with its enemy placement. A quick way to dispatch low-health enemies is absolutely essential to survival, making the shotgun's placement in the first room an important part of keeping this difficulty level balanced.
Moving on, we'll ignore the secrets for now and check out the next room, which is a much more standard DOOM encounter; on lower difficulties, it's the first one, and really sets the tone for what the player can expect moving forward. A loose scattering of enemies, some in plain view, some just out of sight, with a mix of high-priority shotgunners and lower-priority Former Humans, who go down about as quickly but have much lower DPS. There's a little sectioned-off patch in the middle of the room which serves both to draw the player's attention to the first enemies that will be firing on them, and provide a patch of cover as the fight progresses. These are the basics of what make for engaging combat in DOOM; a varied resistance to make the player think about who to shoot first, and just enough environmental variance to keep things interesting without becoming cluttered or overcomplicated. This room also shows off some of the game's cooler textures, computer screens and whatnot, very much of note to any aspiring mapmakers out there.
Speaking of mapmaking, E1M1 displays a lot of what would come to be the fundamental rules of making DOOM maps, as well as useful tips and tricks for polishing up levels; use elevation changes to demarcate distinct sections of the area, as well as to make changes in floor and wall texture feel organic, place "sorbet" textures between patches of wall to hide seams, and around doors to give a feeling of solidity to the architecture, create distinct encounter spaces strung together with more relaxed stretches of pathing, etc etc etc. E1M1 should be the first stop for any budding mapmaker; turn on IDDQD and just examine all the little details of it, take it all in, learn from it.
Moving on, the next major room features something new to shake up the combat: hurtfloors. The main portion of this room is a zigzagging platform suspended over a pit of hazardous nuclear waste, keeping players on their toes as they must now navigate combat within a limited portion of the room or face the consequences. this room also sees the introduction of Imps, who are placed far away from the player on a high platform, with hitscanners sitting closer, so that they're unlikely to be killed before getting a chance to fire off a slow-moving, easily-avoided projectile. These guys aren't much of a threat in this encounter, but soon enough they'll be peppered in at the most inconvenient times, and you'll need to know what their deal is.
This room also contains multiple secrets, so now seems like a good time to talk about those.
Of particular note is the courtyard, a secret path which can be entered from either end depending on just how eagle-eyed the player is. The button to open the entrance end is located in the first shotgunner encounter, on the back of a pillar, and the exit is a barely-concealed fake wall in the nukage pit room. If you happen to find the first entrance, you'll be introduced to one of the most important aspects of DOOM's level design: ambushing hordes hidden behind walls, set up to jump out at you when you go for the Super Armor. Don't trust those pickups, kids, you don't know who's watching them. This area also gives the player a nice view of the facility from the outside, which I cannot stress enough was absolutely mind-shattering at the time. You start the level inside a building, but find the right button and you can go outside and it even looks like a proper 3D building and stuff! Sure, it's a big gray rectangle, but it was a big gray rectangle that nobody saw coming in 1992. Additionally worth mentioning is the secret within a secret in the nukage pit room, letting everyone know to keep a sharp eye out at all times, even inside secrets.
And to polish it off, the final room before the exit contains a dead simple, elegant ambush in the form of a bunch of hitscanners hiding behind a couple corners. Because sometimes it doesn't need to be fancy, sometimes a bunch of zombie gunners crouching behind a doorway is enough. This time around there are some conveniently placed explosive barrels which can really help you out of this scrape, if you're fast enough at thinking on your feet.
Aside from being the perfect introduction to DOOM, E1M1 is also a pretty damn good deathmatch map; there are a number of distinct areas that make for interesting arenas, strung together in a pretty open and freeform way, but not without some nooks for the sneakier among us to hide in, and the inclusion of an outdoor area makes for some nice visual variety.
The whole thing just flows perfectly and is so fun to run through, in singleplayer or multiplayer, and I really couldn't have asked for a better opener. E1M1 is not just one of the most important levels in the history of DOOM, it's one of the most important levels in the history of video games, and it gets a 5/5.
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