Maps You Used To Hate But Now Love

I am way too lazy to make a poll with all the vanilla Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom maps and their add-ons so no poll here.  So yeah, what map did you used to hate, but now really love and why?  I think I mentioned it in another thread, but for me it's the map called "Vivisection" in Doom 2: No Rest For The Living.  I used to hate that map because it was always the roadblock in my UV difficulty run.  Also, I'm not claustrophobic in real life, but I felt like it after playing that map all the while mid-tier enemies are being spammed all around me while in a very tight environment.  Playing this map on subsequent runs, I realized that I have a love-hate relationship with that map and I really do genuinely love that map now.

So what's your's?  

Jens Nielsen's maps in Memento Mori. The first time I played them it took a long time to figure out what to do and how to navigate his maps since he favors a more puzzling approach to Doom with the various switches and functions they have. It wasn't too long though before I came around to greatly appreciate the thought that went into his levels and see that it made the player pay more attention to their surroundings and bumping into new switches to progress the map and occasionally finding secrets that were well rewarded. While it might not be as highly regarded as other genres within Doom, I do feel it rewards player intelligent and wit. For me it also has a replayability factor in that I try finding ways of completing the level faster or going for 100% in secrets.

The other would definitely be the man himself, Bob Evans; namely his Eternal Doom contributions. Silures was a map I hated and it took an eternity to finish, and heading into Excalibur I decided to rely on a walkthrough to lead me around the map. If I could liken both map authors to music genres, Jens' mapping would be jazz with a bit of a rock appeal, while Evans would be straight-up hardcore jazz. Neither of them were immediately appealing to me, but over time as I learned to create my own maps and look into how they created their maps, and especially considering the interconnected layout of Evans' maps it really blows my mind that he was able to do what he did at the time (not that I know a whole lot about the old editors, but still). He also had a thing for getting the players literally thinking outside the box, as in getting the player to jump some wall that looks like it would break the map if the player were to fall outside the map's boundaries, but turns out to be a secret way to progress the map. Every once in a while I like returning to his maps and testing my own memory to see how well I remember how to find everything and if I can even complete it. I've also found in my own experience that puzzle maps can be some of the toughest maps to make, so I have a lot of respect for both authors who were otherwise not my favorites starting out.

In childhood I hated some complex levels that were difficult for me to finish even with IDDQD. Map23 of Plutonia comes to mind. I still loved Map20 of Evilution though, it was just too impressive to complain.

My first reaction to Equinox was disgust. I thought the new graphics and sounds were really lame, and I couldn't appreciate the level design. But later I began to understand how atmospheric it is.

I remember thinking at some point that Vile Flesh is very basic and monotonous but now I feel like a lot of it is just minimalistic, and not necessarily in a bad way.

Never liked Episode 2 levels back then. I always thought they were too complex and full of painful traps. Now it is one of my favorite Doom episodes, for having a haunting atmosphere and tight combat. 

I used to hate Containment Area and Slough of Despair, because I died a few times on those on my first Doom playthrough, but once I replayed them I loved them both.

16 hours ago, Starkiller said:

Never liked Episode 2 levels back then. I always thought they were too complex and full of painful traps. Now it is one of my favorite Doom episodes, for having a haunting atmosphere and tight combat. 

Same for me

Chillax, map 21 into maelstorm...........

i hate that area of cyberdemons :"v

but i replay some days ago, and i love it :P

In terms of official WADs, I used to dislike E2M2, but I've grown to like its non-linear design. Also, I used to hate Map24 (The Chasm) of Doom II, but I love its design and, honestly, the ledge-walking isn't hard at all. I don't know why people have issues with it, even with the enemies that attack you.

For fanmade WADs, off the top of my head, I remember using to dislike Map05 of Tangerine Nightmare, but after V1perK1ller's speedrun of it, I tried to strategy and, except for the AV/Cyberdemon section right at the end, it's a pretty good level. Same goes for Map28 of Ancient Aliens - after watching the speedrun, it actually became a lot easier.

More from me: 

Ultimate Doom - 

- E3M5 Unholy Cathedral: Hated it back then because of the weird layout and teleporters, now one of the most darkest and brutal maps for me.

- E3M6 Mt Erebus: Hated it for huge enemie amounts and damaging floors everywhere, now probably the best map in Ultimate Doom.

- E3M7 Limbo: Didn't like trudging through damaging blood to get the keys and confusing corridors, now I love the moody feel and puzzle-based level design.

- E4M8 Unto The Cruel: Felt like it dragged on to get to the final boss, now my favorite boss map with it's bloodshed encounters and sinister music (What E3M8 Dis should've been). 

Doom 2 - 

Map 07: Dead Simple: Hated the Mancubi and Arachnotron ambush, now one of the best small maps.

Map 08: Tricks and Traps: Didn't like the rooms having traps everywhere, now one of outright best Doom 2 maps. 

Map 10: Refueling Base: Thought it was too full of monsters and secrets, now one of my favorite onslaught maps. 

That's all for now. 

Honestly as a kid I hated Entryway because I knew that there was some sort of secret that unlocked you the rocket.

I knew because I had done it once, and could never replicate it. Don't know what was wrong with me but it took awhile till I realized it maybe wasn't as frustrating as I had once believed.

For me it was map04 when I was a kid.

Romero’s Doom 2 levels had to grow on me. I don’t think I really liked any of them until I learned the maps well.

When I was first playing Final Doom, I hated Plutonia MAP11 Hunted. No guesses why.

Now I play through it and it's my favorite Plutonia map.

scythe 2 level 28.  I hated this because I thought it was impossible.  Then I played it and beat it and it was easy.

I remember hating Plutonia Map32 because at the time I thought it was completely absurd. Nowadays I love that style of chaotic slaughter, and Map32 of Plutonia 2 is one of my favorite levels overall.

As for not-iwads, I didn't like Map23 of Requiem because just the thought of ghost monsters in a map put me off, much less ghost SS soldiers. What kind of person puts SS soldiers in a normal map? When I finally decided to do a full playthrough of Requiem, I found that the level is actually pretty fucking awesome.

TNT Map23, Lunar Mining Project.

Back when I was a wee boy playing PSX Doom I saw this map as one of "those" maps, the ones where you sit there and exclaim "oh for fuck sake" and then dread slogging through them because it's too late into the set to be easy but too early to be proper end game concentration warranting, that and my dumb kid brain couldn't appreciate good map design back then.

E2M5 Command Center. I was lost in it for tens of minutes before I ended up finding the secret exit before the normal one.

MAP09 The Pit. Got lost tons of times, and simply wasted 25 mins off from my speedrun record, but eventually found my way through. Replaying sure does help.

Barrels 'O Fun from Doom 2.

I loathed that map when I first played it, but after coming back to it in PSX style I think it's actually alright. Still not a big fan of the map, but my opinion on it certainly changed with time.

Map 11: Hunted from The Plutonia Experiment is an obvious choice for me.

I absolutely hated that map on my first couple playthroughs. Not only was it completely different in design to literally every other map I had played up to that point, but it was the first map to genuinely terrify me.

In retrospect, that fear is what makes it such a great level. On paper, the idea of a maze populated entirely by Arch-Viles sounds fucking awful (and it is at first), but the experience of peeking around those corners, cautious as to not take ANY damage (there isn’t a single healing item on the map) is so unique in my Doom experience that I can’t help but love it now.

that final teleporter trick is still bullshit though.