Favorite Hell Based Map

So I'm creating a WAD (maybe a megawad) called Earth On Hell and I finished most of my tech based levels and some earth themed levels. However I have never been good at making good hellish maps, I find the textures hard to work with even though I have some pretty good layouts on paper. Anyway, I was wondering which hell themed maps from Doom 1 and 2 are your favorite and why. If you want to rant about your absolute least favorite parts, go ahead! I want to know the do's and don'ts of a good hell themed level so I can create the best I can.

Any opinion is welcomed.

E3M6, because it's non-linear and sandboxy.

Yeah E3M6 is the map you chose for Ultimate Doom In Name Only. Nice choice and I liked your version as well.

I would have to say E3M2 Slough of Despair and E3M4 House of Pain from Doom 1. They're my favorite because they feel more like a hell level compared to E3M3 Pandemonium that had tech textures, and I find them more fun to play when it comes to "hell".

I absolutely hate E3M4.

I haven't played Inferno in more than 2 years. I should probably play it again haha. I remember not really liking E3M2 though. However E3M4 is really fun

joe-ilya said:

I absolutely hate E3M4.

And I think E3M6 is lame...

But everyone loves it, you must be special.

Really Joe? You were a douchebag by hating on nxGangrel's opinion for no reason and then you call him special because he respectfully disagrees with yours?

I really like E3M6 because it's a chaotic, abstract kind of hell, and not a beautiful gothic place you're there to admire. Only way it could be better is if they had managed to use some non-euclidian geometry. Also the wide-open space is a good change of pace from the cramped hallways in most other maps.

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Really Joe? You were a douchebag by hating on nxGangrel's opinion for no reason and then you call him special because he respectfully disagrees with yours?

Nah, it's fine bro. I'm used to it, plus it's joe. He's naturally like that.

Easy question!
From Doom 1, at the top, waaaaay high up there, is Limbo. The layout may be annoying but I actually always thought it complimented the last level of Hell well. Plus it's indoors, some sort of underground catacomb temple thing, and that music! That atmosphere! Most of the rest of the episode pales before it. Hell, almost the entire game pales before it (Deimos Lab does not pale, for it knows it's own worth as a non-hell equal of Limbo).
Somewhere on the way to the top is Slough of Despair. It's got a good sense of environment. Stuff like pandemonium, house of pain or mt. erebus don't look or feel like goddamn anything. Well, maybe house of pain has got a few good rooms in it, but for example mt. erebus is some sort of garishly decorated toolshed complex, not a mountain. But the Slough of Despair was for the longest time the hell level I could not get past as a kid (playing the SNES port and being forced into UV since you could only start from Inferno on UV), and the impression has lasted. A good outdoors wasteland, may feel like a bit of a filler between more notable locations in Hell but that is important too, you gotta get across the sense that even the most mundane terrain traversal in Hell is nightmarish.

From Doom 2, easily Spirit World. Underground, natural, caverns, and a bit of schizo rooms in there too. But the big cave, and going through the crack into the boiling hot halls of lava and fire? That shit is a masterpiece.
Second place would actually go to Chasm. It doesn't look much like hell, but I always enjoyed imagining Doom's hell to be more "imaginative" and varied than just medieval/gothic stuff with occasional rocks. The chasm is some sort of freaky geode cavern in the thick mass of all-encompassing autonomously growing techbase bullshit. Imagine your favorite process of how hell is formed, be it built by demons or materialized out of people's nightmares, and substitute traditional imagery with sci-fi schizophrenia. Not abstract in a boring nonsense way (looking at you mount erebus!), but abstract in a way that stirs the imagination. That's what the chasm is to me.

Doom 1 - like Antroid said, Gate to Limbo/Limbo is also my favorite. it sticks with a consistent theme more than other levels in Episode 3 and i like the wide open space and bigness of it. it has a very nice restrained mood that still feels hellish and creepy. i like Pandemonium second because it's a fairly controlled base-style layout that has crazy hellish bits everywhere in it, like a base that's been completely taken over by hell. also i think its layout is more interesting than other maps in the episode. Mt. Erebus seems less cool now because of all the "sandbox" style maps i've played since, but it's still pretty neat in some ways. i also think Unholy Cathedral is underrated.

actually one of my favorite Hell maps from Doom 1 is probably E4M6, which isn't even in the episode. but it has that green marble, as well as the same outdoor rock texture used in Slough of Despair. so it always felt in the spirit of E3 to me.

Doom 2 - the Chasm is the one for me that feels the most distinct from Doom 1 yet also really weird in spite of the not crazy hellish texturing. The Spirit World, by contrast, was kind of a letdown the first time i played it. i was expecting either something moody like Limbo or something crazy like Mt. Erebus or Pandemonium and i feel like it didn't quite reach either of those. it just feels like an underbaked map to me in a lot of ways, but maybe i'd feel different now.

Cool, a lot of those levels are really fun to play and I agree that Limbo has an amazing atmosphere, but what types of things do you guys enjoy seeing in user made hell maps?

From DOOM: everything in Inferno (except Dis).

From DOOM II: Nirvana, Bloodfalls, Monster Condo, The Spirit World and The Living End.

Favorites: House of Pain, Pandemonium, Mount Erebus

Least favorite: Limbo

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Really Joe? You were a douchebag by hating on nxGangrel's opinion for no reason and then you call him special because he respectfully disagrees with yours?

That's Joe-Ilya for you.

From Doom 1, hmm. not sure. Maybe E3M3, it's got a decent layout and that mish-mash of texturing that I think works for hell. After all, hell doesn't have to make sense.

From Doom 2, MAP28 is, visually, a very unique map. It's one of the few maps that uses ZIMMER8 well, in my opinion. Also that FIREBLU room :D

Doom I: easy, E3M7. The calming nature, low monster count, mazes, and the damaging floors are just awesome. very consistent, and creepy. Doom needs its creepiness in between its action.

Doom II: uh, does MAP26 count? I don't like most of the maps from 21-30 excepting that and MAP29, and I really like MAP26. But MAP26 looks like a base more than it looks hell.

Getsu Fune said:

Doom II: uh, does MAP26 count? I don't like most of the maps from 21-30 excepting that and MAP29, and I really like MAP26. But MAP26 looks like a base more than it looks hell.

According do the Doom wiki, yes. Maps 21 through 30 are considered "inside hell".

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Cool, a lot of those levels are really fun to play and I agree that Limbo has an amazing atmosphere, but what types of things do you guys enjoy seeing in user made hell maps?

user hell maps are more likely to turn me off than other themes unless they're more distinctive. i hate how much hell maps end up fitting the formula of being the obligatory last episode of a megawad where they're expected to throw unreasonable amounts of monsters at you in the same predictable kinds of encounters. also the texturing of hell levels tends to be much less neutral and more in-your-face, which means it's harder to make it work for a variety of different settings. maybe that's why there are a lot more interesting variations of base-themed levels than hell ones.

i do like how Memento Mori 2 switched things around and put hell first, but it's one of the few. i actually like Maps 04 and 05 of MM2 a lot because of how they convey "hell"ish design through being tricky or weird instead of relying on overloading the players with enemies. Map 05 esp is really strange and it feels in the lineage of some of the Sandy levels in that way.

i'll have to think about other hell levels that stood out to me, because i'm blanking right now.

None, hell theme maps are my least favorite including the original iwads.

E3M6

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Really Joe? You were a douchebag by hating on nxGangrel's opinion for no reason and then you call him special because he respectfully disagrees with yours?

AD_79 said:

That's Joe-Ilya for you.

What AD said.

I Liked looking at some of the later "Hell" maps in Going Down, with their underworld city feel to it.

My favorite hell maps from Doom & Doom II:

Slough of Despair
Mt. Erebus
Limbo
The Courtyard
The Abandoned Mines
The Living End

Piper Maru said:

My favorite hell maps from Doom & Doom II:

Slough of Despair
Mt. Erebus
Limbo
The Courtyard
The Abandoned Mines
The Living End

I think I'm going to have to completely agree with this. Those are all excellent maps. Limbo can be a little confusing to me at times but I still love it. Something about that map intimidates me in all the right ways - exactly how a final Hell level should. The Living End is the same way just a little less cryptic.

You should try getting some inspiration from other sources as well. Doom 64's hell levels were pretty good as well as some maps for it like permutations by sector666

Doom I: Pandemonium

It's got a cool layout to it and fits it's name very well. Plus the music is bitchin'.

Doom II: The Spirit World

Some texturing weirdness aside(whatever possessed Sandy Peterson to make those random marble steps I'll never know), The Spirit World also fits it's name with it's surreal environment and in my opinion the best song in the commercial Doom releases.

Didn't think that many people would like Limbo, I pretty much like it over all the other hell maps from Doom 1 myself.

As for Doom 2 I'm partial to The Spirit World as my single favorite Hell map from it.

Doom 1: Slough Of Despair and Mt Erebus.

Doom 2: Spirit World without a question.

TNT: What the Heck. And Ballystix.

Plutonia: That's a tough one, a lot of the hell levels are good in my opinion.

If we are to count PWADs. Anything by Paul Corfiatis and Deus Vult II's hell levels.

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Really Joe? You were a douchebag by hating on nxGangrel's opinion for no reason and then you call him special because he respectfully disagrees with yours?

I said it before in the "Showstopper" thread, what makes you think I did that just because of nxGangrel's opinion? Plus other people said it sucked, nobody said E3M6 sucked except for NxGangrel, he said it because of me.

Since when MAP18 is a hell level?