Doom II

The Levels Of The Week

	Monday December 29th Metal Metal 2 by Kurt Kesler Metal is the more impressive of the two, using lots of converted Quake metal textures. It's beautifully detailed, intricately built, and damned hard to boot. This is one you won't want to miss... Metal 2 doesn't have the Quake textures, but is still worth a look. Almost as detailed as Metal, with some impressive design on a grand scale.
	Monday December 22nd Galaxia by Roger Ritenour Following on from the excellent Pleiades, Mir and Starcity levels, Galaxia once again features neat tricks, nice new textures, and epic design. Thanks to the new textures some areas appear to have transparent floors or curved walls, and the accelerator shown in the screenshot is especially impressive. As with the previous levels in the series, you start on board the starship Pleiades from the first WAD, but most of the game takes place on board a colony ship, with some stunning visuals thanks to the new sky texture (stars and galaxies) and huge open areas with glass domes... Another winner...
	Friday November 28th Chord NG by Malcolm Sailor Yet another fast and furious level from Malcolm Sailor. So hard it hurts, and lots of annoyingly good architecture and lighting to distract you while that 48th hell knight rips your entrails from your bloody chest... The only criticism I have of the level (as with all Malcolm's levels) is that its WAY TOO HARD! For example, there's this one room which you go into, and it starts to descend. As the room's floor lowers, two barons of hell teleport in with you, and several chaingunners are revealed in little barred alcoves in the walls. And that's on "I'm Too Young To Die"! But if you're playing skills are up to scratch and you fancy a real challenge, then download this level. The design is imaginative, the rooms beautifully crafted, the lighting nicely done and the whole level reeks of good design.
	Friday November 21st Eternal Doom III by TeamTNT (WWW Page) A huge (over 30Mb once installed) WAD from TeamTNT's Team Eternal, with levels from the likes of Alex Mayberry, Sverre Kvernmo, Bob Evans and Paul Schmitz. Unfortunately size does not equal quality. Many of the 'new' textures come from Heretic and Hexen, and many levels are relatively mediocre due to the wide range in skill amongst Team Eternal's members. It might be good for the mappers that Team Eternal and TeamTNT have got so much new blood involved in the project, but unfortunately their efforts don't generally sit well next to maps by some of the greatest Doom designers of all time. There is one 'new' monster, but sadly it's just a poorly repainted imp that has glowing eyes and throws a slightly different looking fireball. Would have been better off without... Having said that, the best levels are very good, and some of the genuinely new sprites and textures are pretty cool. The new statusbar is also stunning, and the frontend and installer files are pretty professional. Worth a look, if you've got the time and patience to wait for the 9Mb file to arrive...
	Friday November 14th UAC Headquarters by Tommie Quick TeamTNT member Tommie Quick's second map in recent weeks. Almost as uninspiring as the first one, this level is marred by bland design on a grand scale. You start outside a big square building, surrounded by long featureless straight walls on every side, and have to run right round the outside of the building to pick up the first key and get back to the door again... A few nice bits and pieces in places, but nothing special. It's not a bad level, just not very good. It is damned hard, though, so if you want a challenge it's still worth a look.
	Friday November 7th StarCity by Roger Ritenour Another great level from Roger Ritenour, featuring some great effects like an open-sided elevator that runs up the outside of a building and apparently sloping beams in the control center. You start off in the starship Pleiades (from a previous RR level), and teleport down to the surface, landing in a nice example of the deep water effect (waste deep in slime)... Starcity itself is large and spacious, but fairly bland in areas. But it's still a fun level, and brilliantly designed in places.
	Friday October 31st The Experiment by Mike Reid et al An impressive set of 13 levels by Mike Reid and his team. The levels aren't all amazing, but none are bad. There's some nice lighting and design in places, and its fairly challenging without being impossibly hard. Nice to look at and fun to play...
	Friday October 24th Unconditional Elimination by Andy Badorek Damned impressive, highly detailed, nicely lit and deceptively large level. You start and end in the same place, apparently in the middle of a slimy pit. But although the actual play area is fairly small, the surrounding rooms, corridors and halls are intricate, tightly packed and beautifully built. Whole new areas open at the flick of a switch as you battle your way back to the start. Compact and very difficult.
	Friday October 17th La Gloire de la Guerre Virtuelle by Mark Klein A new, expanded release of an old, old WAD, now featuring two levels. Very variable in quality - there are some really nice looking areas, and then there's a few that really made me cringe. Still, this is the first Doom II release I've seen in two weeks, so it's better than nothing... Fun, fairly challenging, and some nice design in places.
	Friday October 3rd Chord 2 by Malcolm Sailor Another impressive level from teenage hot-shot Malcolm Sailor. As usual with his levels, it's stunningly detailed, brilliantly designed, beautifully lit, and mind-numbingly hard. Hell knights, revenants, imps, shotgun and chaingun dudes fill the claustrophobic tunnels and underground chambers, before you break out into a huge outdoors area.
	Friday September 12th Antras by Donatas Tamonis The only new Doom II level this week. Three levels, fairly big, with some nice looking areas and plenty of remote switches. So many in fact that you spend half your time running round trying to work out which door the switch you just pressed has opened... Every time you press a switch or pick up a key, it seems to be a half hour trek to find the right door... And its dark. The screenshot says - "A Chainsaw! Find some meat". Well, I'd love to, but it's so damned dark in that bit of the level that by the time you've found an enemy he's already impaled himself on your chainsaw... The third level is quite nice though. Some nice lighting effects, a nasty trap that telefrags you, and not too dark!
NONE	Friday September 5th Surreal by Various Quite possible the craziest Doom add-on ever, I must accept moral responsibility for this, as it appears the authors got the idea after seeing the section on dehacked editing in my Doom FAQ. This inspired them to track down Wheel Of Time Doom (previously the most surreal Doom add-on ever) and 'improve' on that with their own patch... So what the hell is Surreal? Well, it changes the behaviour of Doom II - it's not really a level, but there weren't any really good levels this week, so what the heck... So what does it do? Well... Listen, just play it and see OK? Take from me, it's funny. And kinda confusing. Downright insane really.
	Friday August 29th Escape From Natas by Chris Christenson Two damn fine levels inspired by Snake Plisskin's adventures (Escape from LA etc). Nice lighting, lots of marble and slime, and some nice construction. Fairly challenging, and great fun. Part of a trilogy released this week - there's also Escape From Phobos and Escape from Deimos...
	Friday August 15th The UAC Deimos Weapons Plant by Jon Janssen An impressive base style level with new textures. It's huge, and there's tunnels and corridors everywhere, making the level very open, with more than one way in or out of most areas. There's ventilation pipes you can crawl around in, a huge hangar, a warehouse, the weapons plant itself... Well worth checking out.

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