April Agitation: the megathread

E1M7: Computer Station
I have a feeling I am going to be writing about Computer Station for quite a few rounds so I will be brief. Episode 1 is unquestionably the best stretch of levels in Doom or Doom 2. John Romero, as well as many others, consider E1M7 the best level in Episode 1. What more needs to be said?

E3M9: Warrens
It's difficult now, in 2015, to really understand the effect that E3M9 had on players back in the halcyon days of Doom. After blasting through 6 hellish levels, and cleverly using a rocket blast to access a secret switch, the player ends up... back in the first level?! Warrens keeps up the charade until the last possible moment, with the "exit teleporter" instead revealing a Cyberdemon arena. The rest of the map is a reverse trek through a series of new arenas that cleverly build off the original level. It's certainly an apt secret level for an episode full of fiendish, mind-bending maps.

MAP17: Tenements
Tenements is, in my opinion, an underrated Romero map, and I can't figure out why. It has all the usual Romero hallmarks: plenty of flow with the player looping back through areas, recognizable landmarks, ample secrets, and more. So why is it seeded all the way down at 8? Perhaps it's ultimately too linear: Tenements is actually the longest level in the entire game for UV speedrunners, although this really only means that it requires a whole two minutes (!!) to beat. Maybe it subconsciously reminds players of E1M9, which is often considered Romero's weakest Doom level; Tenements shares the same basic structure of a central square hub with connection in the cardinal directions to other areas. It’s still supremely competent, though, and shows that even a middle-of-the-road Romero level can still be on par with the best efforts of others.

E4M1: Hell Beneath
E4M1, and Episode 4 in general, are hard to place within the context of Doom and Doom 2: they were the last maps created for the main Doom games, and consequently are some of the most “modern” in terms of styling. So Hell Beneath looks pretty nice - probably the nicest of all of American McGee’s contributions to the Doom series. But boy, is this level hard, especially on UV, and especially if the player is going for 100% kills. There’s no question that whatever gentle skill slope that was present in the original three episodes of Doom is absolutely blown out of the water here. It’s the first level of the episode, and the player has to navigate a cramped hitscan nightmare with very limited health and four-FOUR!- Barons of Hell making an appearance. All that said, however, E4M1’s stratospheric difficulty is no accident. Episode 4 was basically a boon added on to sweeten the deal for a retail release of Doom 1, and the designers (rightfully in many opinions) decided to tune it for the skilled FPS player of 1995. It seems faintly ridiculous that a scant 18 months could elapse between balancing the relatively straightforward challenges of the first 3 episodes, and the hellish assaults of Episode 4, but since Doom itself essentially invented the very idea of skilled FPS play, it was appropriate. So next time you watch a Youtube montage of sick 360 noscopes, tip a hat to levels like E4M1, where true, lasting tests of players’ skills were first popularized.

E1M8: Phobos Anomaly
One of id Software's many strokes of genius while developing Knee-Deep in the Dead was to make the final map very different from the previous 7, both in mood and in design. John Romero handed off the honors to Sandy Petersen, who rose to the challenge, crafting a simple, linear, and yet deeply satisfying capper to the episode. Riding up the elevator into the otherworldly star-shaped structure, stepping forward and hearing the roars of the twin Bruiser Brothers for the first time - it was a fitting climactic swerve to an episode defined by its surplus of atmosphere. And the final moment, when the player teleports through a demonic altar and is immediately ravaged by an unseen horde - with the screen melting away a split second before your inevitable doom - remains one of the great mic-drops in all of video game history.

MAP28: The Spirit World
The Spirit World is Doom 2's closest brush with the concept of a slaughtermap. That may not be a terribly close brush - heck, two Spiderdemons and a gaggle of arachnotrons in one room is considered a warmup nowadays. Nevertheless, Map28's outdoor arena, with inviting invulnerability spheres and a big plasma cache, is just begging the player to go crazy with the BFG. Which is fun! Especially since the base games don't enable you to do it very often. Otherwise, the level is vintage Sandy Petersen, with some wonderfully malicious trap rooms, naturalistic rocky architecture, and some, shall we say, ambitious texture usage. Once again, however, Petersen has the excuse of a late-game romp inside Hell itself, and a bunch of creepy flesh textures are at least an upgrade from Doom 1's infamous FIREBLU buildings.

MAP14: The Inmost Dens
The Inmost Dens is one of only two American McGee maps to take place in Doom 2's midgame section, and thus one of only two where he had the ability to sprawl a little. And sprawl he did: Map14 has by far the most detailing work of any Doom or Doom 2 level, even to the point where it would sometimes interfere with saving and loading games. So in that sense, Map14 is possibly the most "modern" Doom 2 level - McGee had an eye for aesthetics, and was not afraid to build out a map to realize his vision. But it would be for naught without gameplay to match, and luckily, The Inmost Dens succeeds in that department as well. The map is a hitscanner paradise, with chaingunners sniping from elevated vantage points and sergeants roaming the hallways and waterways.

The Inmost Dens also inspired a great anecdote: in 1995, when designer Tom Mustaine was visiting the id offices to submit a Map14-inspired map for the Master Levels compilation, American McGee played the submitted level for two minutes, turned to Mustaine, and exclaimed, "go make some of your own geometry!"

MAP25: Bloodfalls
Bloodfalls is undoubtedly Shawn Green's best level in Doom 2. It's also his only level in Doom 2. So in that sense alone, Map25 is interesting. It also has an unusual layout for a Doom level: it *looks* nonlinear at the beginning, with 2 different, well, bloodfalls to drop down, but one of them leads into an arena where the blue key is firmly out of reach, requiring the player to double back and attack the level in the “right” way. I’ve also been instructed to note the strange floating water cube above the exit teleporter, the missing textures of which were apparently on purpose: one of the first instances of a mapper purposely using a Doom-engine rendering bug to his advantage.

E3M7: Limbo
Many people find E3M7 somewhat empty given its fairly sprawling nature. This is true as far as it goes, but it’s also sort of missing the point. As the final Episode 3 level before the Spiderdemon showdown, Limbo is more about the level itself trying to stymie you than about throwing another hellspawn army in your direction. The level requires you to crisscross the map, traveling between teleport chambers and throwing switches to raise and lower platforms, while primarily concerned with one thing: the level itself. Limbo stands as the only Doom level where damaging floors are a significant and recurring part of the gameplay mechanic. Nowadays that would probably be considered bad form, but in 1993, making the level itself conspire to kill you was an interesting theme - and, to be fair, it does provide a surfeit of radiation suits. Many people ding Episode 3 for not feeling very consistently “Hellish” in its design and atmosphere, but on those counts, E3M7 comes through in spades.

MAP27: Monster Condo
Map27 is an oddball of a map. With all the wood paneling and bookshelves, and how the map seems totally empty at first, it almost feels like the player is invading some sort of abandoned retirement home. But... it must be the demons' home, then? Which explains the map's name, I guess.

Monster Condo functions as Sandy Petersen's send-off to the type of map he likes best: one that is sprawling, fairly nonlinear, and has tons of traps and individually crafted encounters. There's monster closets and lifts all over the place, plenty of ammo and powerups, and monsters galore, all adding up to one good time at the Hell Retirement Castle. One part I always had a soft spot for were the identical rooms with the mancubi and revenant traps, primarily because I could never figure out the idea behind it. Were players supposed to think it was the same room? Which makes no sense, because any player would notice that all the corpses had suddenly vanished and been replaced with more monsters. Maybe the monsters designed it for some reason, but the monsters are quite dumb. Which would make sense, I suppose.

MAP26: The Abandoned Mines
Map26 is another of John Romero's contributions to Doom 2, and it exhibits many of the hallmarks he loved so well: plenty of brown metal and lava, tons of verticality and interconnectedness, constant besiegement from all directions. Although the map is as abstract as any other Doom 2 map, you nonetheless feel the sense of being in an old, run-down facility just under the surface, and when you emerge into a large lava-filled cavern to dodge cacodemon fire while crossing a windy rock path, it feels like something carved out by humans in a previous, better era.

E3M2: Slough of Despair
Sandy Petersen was never well-known for the aesthetic stylings in his Doom levels. So it feels faintly rude to suggest that one reason E3M2 is a success is because it’s clad in rock textures that are hard to screw up or visibly misalign. And yet it’s not incorrect to say that part of E3M2’s appeal is that it’s not ugly. The other immediate appeal, of course, is the design of the map itself. Ask pretty much anyone who has played Doom about “the hand level” and they will immediately remember Slough of Despair. Perhaps it’s a little cutesy, but it works- both as a shape that lends itself well to a jumble of narrow rocky canyons and corridors, and as suggestion of the hellish forces working against you. Why are you inside a huge grasping hand? Who could it belong to? Would you even want to know?

MAP05: The Waste Tunnels
Map05 is smack dab in the American McGee mini-episode that opens Doom 2, and it features the excellent styling and eye for detail that was the hallmark of all McGee maps. It also opens with what I think is a wonderful reversal: directly in front of the player at the start is a super shotgun, and behind it, a soulsphere sitting right out in the center of the room, beckoning to you. "Well, this is the most obvious trap ever," says the canny player, and upon snagging the powerup, looks around to see... nothing happen? The confused player then starts looking around the room, and almost immediately the floor gives way and the player drops down into an unmarked trap on the *side* of the room. Great stuff.

The dark underground passageway following this is also notable as the first unavoidably pitch-black area of the game. I don't know if it was intentional, but I think it's worth nothing that instead of just dropping the player into inky darkness, McGee striped the floor and ceiling with what look for all the world like dotted street lines, or movie theater aisle lights. Was this a small touch to ease in new players perhaps not prepared for Doom's, well, dark side? I'd like to think so.

MAP20: Gotcha!
MAP20 is notable as a "sandbox" John Romero map; I honestly had forgotten he designed it. The freestanding-citadel style of map was always more of a Sandy Petersen hallmark, and I'd like to think that Romero was trying his hand at something similar. And I could go on about the many secrets and nonessential side paths, all of which show another side of Romero's skill from his usual go-to map elements, but, of course, there is only really one big thing that people remember Gotcha! for.

Earlier, I said that E2M9 was possibly the only Doom map designed around the concept of infighting, but Map20 shows this to be false: a big arena, two platforms, and a Spiderdemon and Cyberdemon, arranged just-so that it's practically impossible to *not* have them get pissed off at each other. And from that point it's just glorious, glorious schadenfreude, watching your two most hated foes tear into each other.

E1M5: Phobos Lab
Episode 1's recognizable style is often abbreviated as "tech base," but this is giving short shrift to the omnipresent sense of menace that Romero poured into his levels for the episode. Phobos Lab captures this feeling most singularly of all the Knee-Deep levels. From the unavoidable acid pit at the beginning, to the disorienting, pitch-black, spectre-ridden mini-maze at the very end, E1M5 seldom eases up on its assault on the player. The level is chock-full of traps and surprises, but some of the most iconic moments were tiny things - the yellow key window, where the player could see ahead to where they knew they must inevitably proceed, still resonates as an oddly pivotal moment in Doom level design.

E4M4: Unruly Evil
E4M4 is perhaps best thought of as a "breather" level in Episode 4. After the madcap insanity of E4M1 and E4M2, and the sergeant hitscan-fest of E4M3, Unruly Evil gives you a little downtime. It's a palate cleanser!

E3M6: Mt. Erebus
Mt. Erebus is the only genuinely “outside” map in all of Doom, made more impressive by the fact that it was designed in a version of the engine even less amenable to details and long distances than the v1.9 we know today. Its texture scheme is legendarily garish, with bright animated red-and-blue walls everywhere. But you could argue that this is what a visit to Hell ought to look like, and it certainly strikes a lot of people as deeply unpleasant.

E3M6 also utilizes the game’s monster movement perhaps better than any other level in the Doom series: the level is stocked with reinforcements of Cacodemons and Lost Souls that are occasionally released from their closets, and often far away from the player. But because the monsters invariably know where the player is, this can lead to nasty and unexpected encounters when turning a corner or exiting a building, as a herd of monsters has made their way over to you. This seems self-evident today, but in 1993, the very idea of video game enemies roaming around on their own and catching you off-guard was practically unheard of.

E2M9: Fortress of Mystery
Looking at E2M9 today, it seems extremely small and simple. And while this is true, Sandy Petersen nevertheless remembers Fortress of Mystery as the Doom level he is most proud of. The reason is somewhat diminished today, but makes more sense in context: E2M9 was the first (and, arguably, only) Doom level that was centered around the concept of monster infighting, which was a behavior that the id Software designers had barely considered during the game's development. So if you still feel a sense of glee at hellspawn turning on one another, recognize where it all started.

E2M7: Spawning Vats
E2M7 is a real oddball of a map: started by Tom Hall and finished by Sandy Petersen, it is possibly the first “real” Doom level ever made, and can be found in the v0.4 Doom alpha labeled as E1M1. You can even still find the original starting room, albeit stripped of its in-progress poker game and office chairs. Many people consider Spawning Vats a sort of amalgamation of many of the previous Episode 2 levels. There’s a crate maze a la E2M2, a computer complex like in E2M4, etc. But it would be more accurate to say that the influence went the other way, and other maps cribbed influences from E2M7. The map is heavily exploration-based like most of the Hall / Petersen creations, and provides a sort of calm before the storm of the final boss fight in E2M8.

MAP16: Suburbs
Suburbs is one of those maps with a pretty inexplicable name: I have seen suburbs, and you, MAP16 sir, are no suburb. That said, I have often wondered about the building right near the beginning: it's totally a house, right? And the 20-imp room adjacent to it is a garage if I've ever seen one. I would love to see the floor plan for where Sandy Petersen was living at the time and see if there was any inspiration there.

Suburbs also has what I think is maybe the best trap in the whole Doom series. Upon reaching the southwestern corner of the map, the player sees a platform in an acid pit, with the blue key perched upon it invitingly. It's an obvious trap, right? But it doesn't look like much of a trap; after all, the player is in a wide open outdoor space, and even if any walls open up, they won't even be very close. What's the big deal? Of course, we know what happens next - approximately a million mancubi and cacodemons teleport in all around the player, in a perfect, unexpected ambush. It was the first time a teleport trap like that was ever used in Doom, and it was beautiful.

MAP01: Entryway
I am pretty sure I have spent more time playing Entryway than any other Doom or Doom 2 level. This isn’t really a reflection of the level’s inherent merits so much as it’s just the default choice when screwing around with custom graphics, or a weapon mod, or what have you. But it still must mean something, right?

Map01 does some things which really set the tone for a game as a whole. Many people complain that Doom 2 feels less cohesive than the original, and lacks the same sense of progression and place. And maybe these are valid criticisms, but Doom 2 doesn’t hold its cards close to the chest - within 10 seconds of starting the first level, you can already get a sense for the different direction the game is going to take. To begin, the first secret - and first new weapon - requires the player to go through the arduous task of, uh, turning 90 degrees to the left. Thus bechainsawed, the player can turn back to the very first two enemies, which are inexplicably facing away from the player - a rare reversal where the player has the chance to effect an ambush, and it’s literally the first thing you see.

Taken together, the designers’ message is clear: whereas Doom hobknobbed with intermission maps showing your progression and an (admittedly thin) storyline expressed through text screens and level design, Doom 2 will be a freeform romp. We’re not putting the chainsaw inside a big maze with a dramatic donut-sector pedestal; it’s right here. Just take it, and use it to murder these zombies blithely standing there, and have fun.

MAP13: Downtown
Much like I wonder if Map16: Suburbs contains a Sandy Petersen-ified version of his own house, I wonder if Map13: Downtown contains a Petersen-ified version of his workplace. In 1994, id Software’s offices were within what came to be known colloquially as “the black cube,” a mid-rise office building in Mesquite, TX. It’s not hard to imagine Petersen modeling it as a sly reference - and indeed, if you look up the building in Google Maps, the street view looks suspiciously similar to the building which houses Downtown’s exit. Which is apropos: the player enters the black cube and is whisked away to a new hellish world.

E1M1: Hangar
What can even be said about E1M1? It is without a doubt the most iconic level in the entire Doom-engine library. For millions of people, it was, and is, THE Doom level. Its mystique is such that recreating Hangar in other FPS engines is practically a cottage industry. But the level itself is also a masterclass in showing off the engine itself: stepping forward, the player can turn right to take in a (at the time) breathtaking view of an outdoor courtyard - something which the proto-FPSes up to that point had largely failed to do. Turning left, the player could enter an alcove with a set of stairs to show off the 2.5D geometry, with a green armor upon a very conspicuous platform, drawing the eye and connoting that it was something worth your attention. And this is just the first twenty seconds of the level!

MAP23: Barrels O' Fun
Yeah, it's a gimmick map. But its gimmick revolves around one of the most gloriously evergreen activities in Doom: blowing shit up with barrels. Raise your hand if you purposely try and lure small-fry monsters near a barrel so you can shoot it, even though it would really just be simpler to shoot the enemy directly. We all do it, right? So Barrels of Fun takes this universal tic and expands upon it, with mancubi and hell knights and pain elementals and demons all loitering around wonderfully explosive goo left sitting out for some reason. And in the process, hey, why not kill a Spiderdemon? Sandy Petersen throws in the kitchen sink, and the result is one of Doom 2's most memorable and gleeful maps, even if snobs turn up their nose at it.

E2M5: Command Center
In a previous life, Sandy Petersen worked as a designer for pen-and-paper role-playing games like RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. When he joined id Software, he immediately began work on Doom, the plot of which was based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and in which the damage calculations were literally calculated as dice rolls. So perhaps it's not a surprise that E2M5 feels like nothing so much as the work of a dungeon master. (It's even proportioned to fit on a sheet of paper!) Command Center is noteworthy for being a sprawling, nonlinear map that doesn't feature a single key. You can run straight for the exit if you like, and many people do. But, of course, that's technically true of a D&D dungeon as well. Instead, the whole point of the map is to explore, and E2M5 is full of secrets, goodies, and random monster encounters - mostly low-level, of course, with the occasional cacodemon and baron of hell thrown in. Many people bemoan the fact that practically every room in E2M5 has a different theme, but that's almost the whole point: you're wandering the map, coming across new and interesting self-contained challenges. Why wouldn't they all be stylistically unique?

In all of Doom, Command Center most perfectly typifies a ethos of FPS level design that is practically extinct today - one where the goal is not forward progress, but the act of exploration. For that alone it is valuable.

E3M3: Pandemonium
Stumbling in from the hellish Slough of Despair you are struck with a sense of deja vu. Yes, you have been here before... not four maps ago in Spawning Vats. The premise of a base being subverted by hellspawn was the central hallmark of The Shores of Hell, and it is once again on display here with a more schizophrenic texture scheme and punishing difficulty. Pandemonium indeed. Spontaneous combat, upsets of the status quo (poisonous water, anyone?) and a delirious layout help make this level an entertainingly nonsensical one.

MAP15: Industrial Zone
Industrial Zone is another one of those maps that I always forget was a John Romero creation. This is nothing against either the map or the mapper, but if you were to ask me, “who made the most wide-open map in Doom 2?”, I would surely guess Sandy Petersen. That said, Romero pulls off the sandbox style spectacularly. Map15 is a haven for all the flavors of former human, which makes perfect sense since it’s so wide open; by pinning the player down by sergeant and chaingunner fire, Romero ensures that the pace is deliberate, and that the player doesn’t have carte blanche from the very beginning to gallivant across the whole level. It is full of memorable architecture, most notably the large… industrial?… building looming above the blood pit. But there are other, smaller structures as well, not to mention the apparently massive fortress that the players dips in and out of to find keys and exits. Right, exits: Map15 is also the only Doom 2 level with a secret exit, and it liberally borrows from Episode 3’s secret-exit strategy, with having to make a leap of faith across a gap in order to hit the crucial switch.

E1M9: Military Base
Military Base stands somewhat apart in the Episode 1 levelset. The rest of the levels maintain a pervasive sense of place, with the constant feeling that you are fighting through a existing facility that just happens to be overrun with monsters. E1M9, on the other hand, feels like a series of designed encounters, constructed specifically to torment the player. If this sounds a little meta, then maybe it is - but E1M9 is a secret map, and secret maps have license to get a little weird.

Military Base was the last full level that John Romero created for Episode 1, created late in development, and I have to wonder if playing Sandy Petersen's maps influenced Romero a little in crafting E1M9. Like most of Petersen's better maps, it's essentially a nonlinear series of discrete encounters; you start in the center of a 9-part square, and run back and forth between areas, each of which offers unique traps and challenges. And that's good! It's the least "Knee-Deep-esque" of the Romero E1 maps, but it's still great fun and can be terrifically challenging. Plus, it shows Romero dabbling in a style that was perhaps not a native one for him.

MAP10: Refueling Base
Refueling Base is interesting in that it's not a Doom 2 level at all: it started life as a Tom Hall creation for Doom, and is visible in the 0.5 alpha as E1M6. In fact, barring a pass of retexturing and repopulation, the level is almost identical. This makes it an interesting time capsule within Doom 2 - most of the game was made with a real wealth of experience on what worked and what didn't in a finished, polished Doom map. Map10 is more conceptual, and in a weird way, more cerebral: it's one of the few Doom 2 maps that actually vaguely looks like it could be a real place. It also has by far the most secrets of any Doom or Doom 2 level - 18 official secrets, where the runner-up has 12 (barring E4M3 with its accidental 22 secret sectors). And like all Hall / Petersen maps, it's highly interconnected and relatively nonlinear. What's not to like?

MAP19: The Citadel
In a chapter of the game that focuses on cool new layouts and open-ended environments (Downtown; Suburbs), The Citadel stands as a call-back to some of Doom's earlier design with narrow areas crammed into the titular construct. The texturing is mostly oldscshool as well, implying heavily that this was a map made early in Doom 2's development, and if it wasn't for the new monsters or the main building being surrounded by a large moat there wouldn't be much to suggest it was for Doom 2 at all. But The Citadel is still its own boss, and commands an impressive ability to seem larger than it actually is. It disorients the player with twists and teleports as they search for one of the required keys in a unique objective. Whether the level's ambitious strides in non-linear level design make for a positive playing experience is your call, but there's no denying that it's a standout performer.

E2M2: Containment Area
Crateology is a religion founded in the halls of Containment Area, 1993, and if that isn't enough to grant this map careful consideration then consider how it plays: A cache-riddled sprawl of boxes and tangents, with secrets within secrets and a ton of hostile, interactive environments. The perfect introduction of the berserk powerup, the crusher mechanic and the crate-clamouring make this level stand out as iconic in The Shores of Hell and Doom in general – perhaps more so, even, than Deimos Anomaly and Tower of Babel from the same episode. It is difficult to overstate how much of an impact this level has had on the evolution of PWADs the world over.

E2M3: Refinery
E2M3's Refinery does not have any new toys with which to impress the player, conversely, and must rely on the quality of its level design to create a lasting impression... that is, if you discount the baron lording over the marble hallway on the map's east side. The revelation that these brutes would exist outside of Phobos Anomaly was a terrifying thought at the time, and provided the level with a lot more weight and granduer than we might offer it today. Quirky little areas like the Star* room and the SUPPORT3 hallway add character to a level that might seem like a bit of a non-event to some, but was doubtlessly effective in adding to the episode's developing philosophy.

MAP11: Circle of Death
Romero puts a cap on Doom 2's starport proceedings with Circle of Death, a surprisingly sightly yet challenging level that introduces us to the arch-vile and reminds us once again that yes, Doom can look good! Coming off the back of a much more free-roaming Refueling Base, the progression feels almost odd for being so well structured and rational (fancy that), although it still stands firmly in the abstract, much to its benefit. Many players will recall with equal measures fear and wonderment the encounters faced here as a newbie, and perhaps even the beauty behind the map's central theme. The hub setup that is the go-to model of so many Romero maps is also expertly designed to encompass the map's progression and account for all the secret ledges, nooks, crannies and assorted alcoves... truly 'O' of Destruction plays like one of the most complete and well-realized levels in all of Doom 2.

E3M1: Hell Keep
At the time of writing, Warrens is deceased; bludgeoned into infinity by the overwhelming favourite, Computer Station. Leaving out the two-or-so sorry souls who may actually prefer Hell Keep over Warrens on the grounds of a stinky gimmick, it's hard not to condemn this uninspired opener to a similar fate. Or, come April, I could be a very stupid-looking man.

MAP04: The Focus
If we could steal into the mind of McGee and find out what it is he meant by "The Focus" in the first place, we might discover that this tricky little jaunt entails merely a great deal of concentration. It's a small but vicious number filled with quirky design choices and interactive elements, not to mention droves of gun-totting dead guys. The mandatory walk-over crate; the crusher/window; the light switch... it's been said that MAP04 almost seems like an early incarnation of Doom 3 level, and with its dank, embattled halls and claustrophobic setting it's hard to disagree.

E2M1: Deimos Anomaly
Welcome to Hell at several thousand feet. I'm assuming Evil™ is what's preventing Deimos from hurtling from the heavens (heh) and into Inferno. I'm also assuming that this is a conundrum that has no bearing on your decision today, but hey, permit me a flashy introduction why don't you. Unlike any other level in The Shores of Hell (save for E2M8 and the bite-sized secret level), Deimos Anomaly maintains a consistent theme from start to finish (with the beginning sections feeling like a natural extension of its Phobos Anomaly predecessor), while also impressing the player with a strong sense of departure from the familiar sheen of Starstruct, Inc.. It is a gritty, no-nonsense gun-blazer that makes frequent use of the teleport mechanic – still effectively new as a tool for formal level design – and introduces the player to the plasma rifle and cacodemon. An optional key and a number of additional secrets and features make this map more than just a fun opener, but a fully-fledged level in its own right.

E1M4: Command Control
Command Control is an interesting map, as an early version first appeared in the v0.4 Doom alpha. This early build showed much more of the original Tom Hall vision of levels as real spaces, with Command Control (probably intended as "Enlisted Quarters" at that time) including such mundane amenities as showers and locker rooms. By the v0.5 alpha, however, these had already vanished and been replaced by more "Doomy" architecture; that said, the level is still largely a Tom Hall creation, albeit reworked and retextures by John Romero. This still shows through in the final product: the first half of the level is fairly nonlinear by Episode 1 standards. Romero added his own surprises, however: the level introduces the first Soulsphere in the game that isn't hidden in a secret area, and fiendishly, reaching it is a one-shot deal with no second chance to reach the rising platform. Also, no discussion of E1M4 is complete without discussion of the infamous swastika room, intended as a small nod to Wolfenstein 3D. The structure actually started life in v1.0 as a left facing "sauwastika," before being mirrored into the more-familiar swastika in v1.2, and finally removed in v1.4 after outcry from players and pressure from id's business manager. Romero has remained somewhat incredulous by the furor, exclaiming, "I thought we were supposed to be Satan worshipers, not Nazis; are we both?!"

E2M6: Halls of the Damned
Sandy Petersen may not have yet discovered the more complex methods of non-linearity that would define his Doom 2 work, but this deliberately paced level from The Shores of Hell was a big step in that direction. The maze-like geometry allows for the working of several dangerous traps, which trigger as the player blunders his way up and down the dimly lit halls (the number of light amplification goggles on offer seem to rob this level of some of its appeal in this regard, however). With any luck the hapless player will fall for the biggest trap of all, and drop into one of Doom's most infamous moments: the fake exit, where flipping the "exit switch" results in the floor dropping out and the player suddenly beset on all sides by baddies. Crushers, demons and barons abound in Halls of the Damned!

MAP18: Courtyard
The Courtyard finds us at the tail end of Sandy Petersen's outdoor expedition, and in a cunning inversion of the status quo. Downtown had provided us with a box into which ideas were placed – themselves in smaller boxes – and this map is a box from which ideas branch outward into the void. At the same time, the courtyard itself plays central to the gameplay in the level, featuring the game's second so-called "slaughter" encounter after The Suburbs' blue key pickup. Highlights include the somewhat humorous key placement (yeah, that's totally a health bonus) and what I prefer to assume is a shower cubicle in the glorious SKINLOW outhouse that overlooks the city skyline.

MAP22: The Catacombs
It would have been interesting to see what else American McGee could make if he'd been given more slots in Doom 2's final third to work with. The texture usage in The Catacombs is remarkably incoherent when compared with The Inmost Dens or anything in the early game, but the monster usage is largely the same (and the difficulty, by extension – American apparently interpreted his involvement in the Hell section as an invitation to pour chaingunners into the map like wine at a medieval banquet), as is his pathological urge to overload a corner of the map with detail down to the last visplane. This little kernel of a level may be unlikely to win big at the voter sweepstakes, but it's jam-packed with character and blood loss, and that's a Doomin'!

MAP08: Tricks and Traps
Tricks and Traps is the first level in Doom 2's "Episode 1.5" - that particularly abstract string of maps that, sources tell me, is actually set inside a Starport! The lack of clear direction that had been so well established in the first six levels of the game might throw some players off the boil, but there is a method to the non-linearity here that, once understood, allows for better enjoyment of the level's content. As with several other Sandy's maps in Doom 2 like Downtown or The Courtyard, the conceptualized layout in MAP08 serves as a platform for exploring independently formed ideas, and this gives rise to many memorable encounters and surprises. Who amongst us did not do a double take when stumbling into the cyberdemon lecture hall, or the baited cacodemon condo? Love it or hate it, this is a map that marks a bold new direction for the game, a path down which any remaining scraps of sensibility will be throw to the wind in light of daring gameplay concepts.

MAP07: Dead Simple
MAP07 is clearly the best boss level in Doom 2 (not that it has much competition), but the question really is: is it the best boss level in all of Doom and Doom 2? It's easy to argue yes. Up to this point in Doom 2, the player has been introduced to only a few of the "lower-tier" new enemies; on Dead Simple, the player is introduced to two tougher foes, in quick succession. Why stack the new enemies like this? Two reasons: first, it gives the player a controlled arena to focus all their attention on each new enemy in turn, getting a sense of their attacks and their toughness, without being distracted by anything else. Second, both the mancubus and arachnotron are specifically designed to stymie the sort of basic shooting and strafing that Doomers might still be holding onto up to that point. By making a player face off against an enemy that purposely shoots to your side, and then with one that fires at you incessantly until you regain cover, the designers are saying: you're going to need to up your game.

E2M4: Deimos Lab
If Doomworld consensus is anything to go by then the mantle of spook belongs to Deimos Labs, with its cold, empty hallways that stretch into the pixalated wilderness, and the silence that belies a hidden difficulty. To be fair, They're Going to Get You is a pretty eerie track, and the level serves as a brilliant change of pace after the more frenetic Refinery. Many players will no doubt remember feeling very small and hounded as they explore the corners of this desolate facility, and even though it's a lot easier to spot the pitfalls in design after twenty years of exposure, stemming largely from the blueprint of Tom Hall's layouts. Standout moments include the gun-triggered crusher, the spectre horde and Doom's only crushing floor. (Yes, floor - you hadn't forgotten about that, had you?)

MAP12: The Factory
The Factory is the first in a new strain of level design for Doom – the second if you count Mount Erebus. Trim away the fat that is the perimeter of the building and what you have would not look out of place next to Refueling Base or The Pit: a mangled assortment of shapes and ideas that cram into the void. The decision to open up the playable area and toy with outdoor concepts was the driving force behind much of Doom 2's gameplay philosophy, and in introducing us to this concept with MAP12 gives us a suitable opener for the second part of the game. Ickwall crates, storehouse imps and piston-driven cacodemons are among the many highlights of this drab but critical step forward in the game.

MAP06: The Crusher
No two ways about this one: it's a crusher, plus a lot of other bits of varying importance. The introduction of the Spiderdemon so early in the game was an indication to players that shit isn't just about to get real – it's already started. The level is also one of the few that shows how gimmicky American McGee can be when he puts his mind to it... or when he takes it off. Whichever you think is more appropriate. It's a fun little challenge that's oddly sparse in the detail department compared to some of his other works in the game, but given how many ugly maps there are this is hardly a reason for detraction.

E4M9: Fear
E4M9's biggest claim to fame might be as the origin of the background image in Doom 3's Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3. (This is not really high praise.) Fear showcases the game design of Willits at its most scattershot, with monsters and barrels burst seemingly from a great big bag in the sky. It is the most clear-cut decrescendo in Doom's line-up, with the chaotic beginnings of the map giving way to a steady subside in difficulty and action, and to symmetry. There are members of the Doom community who laud this map's approach, and this can be respected granted how differently the map plays to anything else in the Doom IWADs, but for many it is a level that has taken the place of what could have been a memorable outing in the ultimate slot.

E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly
At some point after finishing Doom 2, Romero decided that enough was enough: everyone had to die. He tore out the carpet and replaced it with hellslime. On the balcony outside his office window he installed a cyberdemon and key-locked the exit. "If Perfect Hatred doesn't kill them," he proclaimed, "then wait 'til they get a load of this!" In many ways this isn't a joke. The ingredients had been broiling away beneath the surface of his work since Circle of Death came to fruition, and it would only be a matter of time before the combination of elevated platforms, damaging sectors and pressuring monsters revealed themselves as key requisites in the formation of a nightmare. Yes, the stage was set for Against Thee Wickedly, and what many consider to be the most impressive level in all of Doomdom. Certainly it's one of the most testing. The player must throw himself headlong into punishment with small chance of reprieve, often whittling his resources down to a nervous stand-off on a nearby ledge, craving stimpacks, health bonuses... anything at all to help him get out alive. It is a masterstroke of architecture, lighting and progression, not that any of this will mean too much in the face of such brutality. How far this map progresses could depend entirely on whether the victims with PTSD have taken their medication.

E3M5: Unholy Cathedral
Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. Take Monster Condo, for example, where Sandy's master plan was to execute attacks on the player using isolated groups of the same monster type – a little-known fact, it would seem, although everyone's experienced it. In Unholy Cathedral the ideas aren't unified by any one concept this way, and as is usually the case in Doom 1, but there is a meticulousness to the layout and teleporter setup that often goes unnoticed, and this is to be commended when the author is often seen as a chaotic designer throwing caution to the wind. Add to an atmosphere that is richly malevolent and sacrosanct, and you have a level that is as close to complete an experience as any other in Doom 1. Not bad for a man dragged in a couple of months before the deadline.

MAP29: The Living End
If we're looking to use words like cinematic or spectacle to describe key moments of the game – and we're willing to accept that there aren't that many in Doom 2 given its broader focus on gameplay – it's hard to go past Romero's Doom 2 magnum opus. With a relative handful of linedefs and a liberal scattering of torches, he has managed to forge a level so compelling and fraught with anticipation that it almost seems a shame we have to wade through twenty-eight maps to get to it. The deliberate combination of platforming, puzzle solving and monsters pressuring the player from distant vantage points was immediately successful outside of the level it was most formally introduced in, so much so that the Casalis saw fit to repeat the concept twice for their Plutonia Experiment. They even went so far as to rip the texture selection right off the turf (although that's not entirely out of character)! As the penultimate level of the game, The Living End satisfies both artistically and in its ability to ready the player for the final showdown. It's also a pretty good "last hurrah" for the Doom engine, with an impressive verticality and level of detail. Perhaps the only letdown in the map is the cyberdemon at the very end, which does a supremely ineffectual job of actually guarding the level exit. Oh well, you can't have everything, it seems.

MAP30: Icon of Sin
As a followup, Doom 2 could have made a final level with a normal boss arena where you shoot some big fireball flinging demon, but the designers decided to actually do something new and different. The Icon of Sin is not only detailed and visually striking in a way that a normal enemy could never be, but defeating it requires a level of problem-solving and finesse, rather than just holding down the fire button for a while. And while it might be dirty pool to place the level in a historical context, consider this: Icon of Sin managed to provide a template for final levels that continues to this day. Think of just about any Doom 2 megawad you’ve ever seen, and how MAP30 is almost invariably a mapper’s personal take on the Icon of Sin concept. How many levels can boast that degree of near-ubiquity?

MAP24: The Chasm
MAP24 represents the pinnacle of Sandy's concept-driven level design. Whereas maps like Tricks and Traps exist to harbour a host of independent ideas, others like Barrels o' Fun seek to exhaust a particular mechanic in the game until there's nothing left to give, ensuring they meet the bare-minimum requisite in visuals with sheets of falling nukage (incidentally, this one of the only two levels this texture is used in, surprisingly enough). In The Chasm, this mechanic is balancing on paper-thin ledges and praying to God you don't fall off. It's a level that nurtures a finesse in movement and weeds out all the clumsy, and depending on how you look at it it makes for one of the most enjoyable or most frustrating setups in the game. But with the all attention being drawn to this idea, one can forget that this is also among the most rewarding and expansive levels going from an exploration point of view (the area with the BFG was the last area I discovered in either of the IWADs being discussed today), and that it plays host to some truly impressive achievements in design. The world's first computer terminal switch may be found here, as can one of the first uses of a midtexture along an otherwise one-sided wall to divide upper and lower sidedefs (consult line 601). The blue room also exists. Chances are you've already made up your mind on this map, and all this text is pointless scroll buffer. But all the same, I urge you to consider the importance of The Chasm in the wider context of the game. Choose carefully – you don't want to end up on the wrong side of The War.

MAP09: The Pit
You'd be hard-pressed to find a Sandy Petersen map to file away under the category of "normal," and certainly The Pit is not one of these with its rampant swings in balance and unconventional gameplay ideas, but most of what defines levels like The Pit are in those ideas and not whatever centralized idea it is that binds them all together. The titular "pit," for instance, is a recessed hub with elevators. Bang goes that application. Impotent pain elementals; the rocket launcher trap; the bit where you go up and down again a lot... Christ, I don't even know what to call that part. These are the starts of moments that help separate the normal from the noteworthy, whether or not you can bear to stand them, and if The Pit sails through then you can bet your bottom dollar it's off the strength of these events.

MAP02: Underhalls
It's not hard to see why some folks call Underhalls the most entertaining map in Doom 2. The player is given free reign to mow down hordes of zombies with the SSG, and the prevalence of sergeants in particular demonstrates American's penchant for breakneck, ruthless engagements. It's because of this approach to level design that Doom 2's starport levels are considered some of the most endearing (and frustrating) to speedrunners – because of its plethora of sergeants in tight quarters, Underhalls has the odd distinction of being the only Doom 2 level that has never been properly beaten in the Pacifist style (discounting MAP30, of course). Underhalls is also well-known for a certain bug-that-maybe-isn't: MAP02 houses the first barrels in Doom 2, and directly next to the first one the player encounters is a sergeant partially stuck inside a wall, unable to move or shoot. Is it a design error, or did American McGee exploit a bug in the engine to set up a controlled demonstration of barrels' enemy-splattering powers?

E4M7: And Hell Followed
Originally titled "CHIRON.WAD" and slated as the eighth canto in his celebrated Inferno series, And Hell Followed is a quality outing from John Anderson aka "Dr. Sleep" that may be remembered more for its exploration value than its difficulty. It plays host to a bunch of innovative technical accomplishments, including instant-lowering floors via adjacent ceiling height, and can still prove fiendishly difficult if the player takes one too many wrong turns. While the layout of the map is strictly symmetrical, it is typical of Sleep's method in allowing for the ordered execution for a number of ideas, typically involving crushers or other traps. Placed alongside his other works it mightn't seem all that remarkable, but it brings a fresh brand to Thy Flesh Consumed and that makes it a winner.

E1M2: Nuclear Plant
It may be easier to think of Nuclear Plant as the level that collects the most run-off nostalgia from the top of the mountain, but when you stand back and admire what it achieves in furthering the player's understanding of Doom, it's a really fine piece of work. It's the first level to offer the player real options for progression, keys as an objective, and a rich array of dynamic lighting and other cool effects (the chainsaw donut!), and it does all this with aplomb. Creeping around the COMPTALL maze was the first spooky experience in the game for most people, unless most people were like me in being unable to open the first Hangar door without getting sweaty palms. Even when measured against its arguably better compatriots in Knee-deep in the Dead, this is a level that stands out for more than just its recall value.

E4M8: Unto The Cruel
Unto the Cruel stands out on the short list of boss maps for being a level with actual substance, although it may not be true to call it a boss map at all given the nature of the beast. The second spiderdemon to make its appearance in the game seems equally as ill-equipped to fight the player as the first one, having been shuttled into her wooden tomb on the wings of complete indifference, and further evidence of E4M8's confused objective can be found in the key placement, where Shawn appears to have copped out on an entire second half of the map (the red key could only afford the cheapest accommodation). Still, for all this the level has its moments: the opening bloodbath is a classic scene in gibbing history. Can it save it from oblivion, or is this the map best remembered as an anti-climax to round out the supposed hardest episode on Doom? You decide.

MAP03: The Gantlet
I was too young to care at the time, but finding out that The Gantlet was not in some strange, twisted way a section of double railroad tracks formed by a temporary convergence must have been really disappointing for someone somewhere. For almost everyone else, though, it's a pretty decent little romp through zombie-infested browntown. The main area is a cleverly orchestrated encounter that sticks immediately to the memory, and the map feels right at home in the early stages of the game, where the going is tough and the tough dies fast to a well-placed SSG blast.

E4M5: They Will Repent
They Will Repent has an interesting distinction: it's the only level in any Doom game (and possibly any id game whatsoever) designed by a woman. Although usually credited to Tim Willits, the level was actually designed and laid out by his sister Theresa Chasar, with Willits providing texturing, item placement, and mop-up duty. Upon playing E4M5 recently, I was strongly reminded of the recent WAD series Back To Saturn X: the level starts out appearing to be linear, but it soon becomes clear that it keeps looping back into and around itself, with windows and ledges leading back to previously explored areas or offering alternate routes. I might even say that by that metric, E4M5 has some of the most "modern" level design in all of the original Doom games. E4M5 is often derided as "forgettable," and gets demerits in the eyes of players for its paint-by-numbers "stone and metal" texture scheme and weak, uninspired monster encounters. Oddly enough, those are the aspects of the map added by Willits, which can make you wonder...

E1M3: Toxin Refinery
Backtracking is often frowned upon in Doom level design. If you're going to do it, make sure there are fresh baddies to bully or new tangents to explore. And yet, while Toxin Refinery does not allow for either of these things upon pickup of the blue key, it is regarded as one of the best levels in E1, if not in Doom outright. Why is this so? E1M3 continues the trend of evolving more complicated means of progression and allowing for more decision-making in the game, this time in the form of an optional key and multiple, matryoshka-type secrets. The player is rewarded handsomely for his explorative efforts, and is treated to a few cinematic moments that have since become embedded in the minds of millions: the oval-shaped catwalk, the rising staircase, the blue key trap. It is a timeless classic supported in equal measure by the strength of its design and the lasting impression of its key encounters. It's also pretty fun to play on Nightmare! which, as it so happens, is due mostly to the backtracking in its progression.

E3M4: House of Pain
Here's a fun bit of trivia for you: House of Pain is modelled after the human anatomy. I know, right!? While you're busy scratching your head over what room is supposed to represent what organ, and exactly at which point Sandy decided to give up (or whether he even started), here's an overview of the map with regards to actual level design. Doom mapper Hellbent once described House of Pain as Doom's Indiana Jones level; one big, romping adventure filled with all manner of puzzle-solving and mysterious imagery. The way it progresses and the sorts of encounters it contains make this comparison seem apt, although some might be more inclined to think of E3M4 as the final dumping ground for all of Sandy's disused ideas. Even by his typical standards, it plays like a hodgepodge of experiments and aging scraps of sector all sewn together under a weakly functional concept... and this almost seems to be its strength. There's a certain charm to map that knows it's the filler of the bunch and plants its tongue firmly in cheek, so much so that we can forgive the incessant switch flipping and the bizarrely set up door triggers. An interesting outing, to be sure.

E1M6: Central Processing
Bigger doesn't always mean better in Doom, but the largest, most complicated level in Knee-Deep in the Dead (also the most populated level in the game with over 170 baddies to sort through in Ultra-Violence) is easily one of the standouts. With its sprawling yet perfectly navigable network of traps, mazes and catwalks, Central Processing serves up another bloody helping of memorable encounters and textbook Romero brilliance. Maybe the mid-episode blues is what's leading some folks to overlook this particular map, but I'm putting all my chips on the table and touting E1M6 as an April dark horse! You read it here first.

E4M3: Sever The Wicked
Sever The Wicked is supposedly the very first Doom map that Shawn Green ever created. If that's the case, the man was some sort of prodigy. The level is relatively plain in its layout, and certainly in its texture scheme - it's possibly the most overwhelmingly wooden map in Doom or Doom 2, although this does lend it a novel character. E4M3's is most dangerous at the very beginning, as it's easy to quickly become overwhelmed in the large outdoor area; but once the player gains a foothold (and a rocket launcher), they can go to town. I also love the stairway "ramps" above the two lava pits; it's the closest that the speed-demon Doomguy ever gets to a Dukes of Hazzard-style stunt jump.

E4M2: Perfect Hatred
If Thy Flesh Consumed needed a poster boy for promoting its souped-up difficulty, this would be the first map to spring to mind. A couple of other levels still contend for the honours of "hardest map in Doom," but few seem so committed to killing the player from the outset, with barons packed precariously on thin wooden ledges and a layout that at times seems more intent on your destruction than the monsters. One wonders if John Romero wasn't making this level following a heated row with another member of staff. Whatever the case, E4M2 remains a standout level for more than just its difficulty. It is a chief example of how best to restrict movement while still giving the player options, and how to effectively provide incentive to the player through limited resources. And how to use cyberdemons! Also impressive is the fact that it was made in one late-night mapping frenzy; maybe id should have deprived Romero of sleep more often.

MAP21: Nirvana
Nirvana gets a bad rap, and before we steer this carriage into another ill-informed Kurt Cobain discussion about "that shotgun," let's remind ourselves why. It's ugly. Real ugly. Dead-set butters kinda deal. But when you quit harping on about how defective the whole thing looks and focus on the gameplay, it's a map that really has something going for it. Try it from pistol start if you haven't already – those medikits aren't just there for show.