Secret levels

So what's the point of secret levels in games? It just seems like a way most of the time to shove in tech demos as levels of it.

4 minutes ago, MeetyourUnmaker said:

So what's the point of secret levels in games? It just seems like a way most of the time to shove in tech demos as levels of it.

What? I don't understand what you're trying to say with regard to tech demos.

Since you're posting in the Doom General category, I'm going to restrict my answer to just Doom. In my opinion, the purpose of the secret levels in Doom is to reward players who explore with a treat. The nice thing is that the secret levels aren't necessary to the progress in the game, so they're an opportunity to reward the players that find them without necessarily punishing the players that didn't.

Secret levels also give mappers the opportunity to try out things that are maybe a little (or a lot) different from the rest of the map set, so they won't detract from the rest of the map set by being oddball relative to the rest of the levels.

Secret levels are like "one-of-a-kind" maps that takes you into a nice or bad detour in the mapset. Of course, you're not forced to take those levels by all means (unless that are wads that force you to play those maps). Plutonia takes you into harder levels, TNT takes you into ruins and vacations, Epic 2 for example takes you into a time travel gameplay.....and many maps are like that. 

Personally, I like to play the secret levels to have some fun and discover what it has in store for me.

23 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

Secret levels are like "one-of-a-kind" maps that takes you into a nice or bad detour in the mapset.

Simply put, but best description of their purpose so far, imo. They're there if you want to take a break from what the megawad has to offer up until that point, to be accessed at your own discretion.

I personally am not a fan of secret levels, I'm more interested in what the regular levels have to offer, and I'm too bad at finding the exits that lead to them anyway. I mean, I still haven't played the secret maps in Plutonia, TNT, Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 even after all these years by myself, just how much I care about them.

They're just optional side-quests for fun.

Secret levels are like map sized secret areas, bonus content that can be very profitable to the players who find them. E1M9 is in my opinion the best of Doom's secret levels, being more of a normal map than the most, but still rather unique with good secrets.

2 hours ago, Pegleg said:

reward players who explore

This.

I don't mind the secret levels, but can't stand the God awful music that always accompanies them. 

simply something extra for whoever wants more of the wad or something like a reward and if I made a megawad (I doubt i do it xD) I would put some secret boss like omega zero that I did

Secret levels are great.

For Doom they're just additions to the episodes. Doom 2 they're from another game. Doom 2016 they're from the older games.

In terms of modding, I personally like to see them as a departure from work. For example,in TE3D (project of mine, shameless plug) they are specifically tailored so they don't work as base maps so I have something to go to when being sick of the tedium of working within the limits of the already-set requirements for levels. I can do insane shit with those secret levels if I wanted.

4 hours ago, Agent6 said:

I personally am not a fan of secret levels, I'm more interested in what the regular levels have to offer, and I'm too bad at finding the exits that lead to them anyway. I mean, I still haven't played the secret maps in Plutonia, TNT, Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 even after all these years by myself, just how much I care about them.

You really need to try Go 2 It on Plutonia. It's a really fun and challenging map.

You can also always look up some walkthroughs on how to get to the secret exits.

Secret levels are either really easy or really hard.  They are typically a joke level but sometimes they are just a level.  If you wish to create a secret level, you must hide the secret exit well.  It was on a specific occasion that I cannot recall, where I had come to the secret exit so effortlessly, that I had believed at the time that it was the normal exit.

2 minutes ago, TakenStew22 said:

You really need to try Go 2 It on Plutonia. It's a really fun and challenging map.

 

Go 4 It is also quite nice, but very different

14 minutes ago, Doge Sword said:

Go 4 It is also quite nice, but very different

I was actually thinking of playing Plutonia 2 after I finish Plutonia 1. Heard it was a good WAD.

Secret levels should be seen as "high risk, high rewards"

1. Boring answer:
   Secret levels are an opportunity to deviate in fun or fanciful ways from the established convention of a game or set of levels and, at least some of the time, reward players who invest in the experience enough to appreciate the levity of such a departure.
    
2. Exciting, Doom-specific answer:
   It's high time MAP15 relinquishes the rights to secret level access. Let's use advanced source port features to allow entry from any map in the set, accept that less able ports will have to use the CLEV or -warp function to get there, instead (like half of us suckers don't do this anyway!), and revive the gold standard. Searching for the secret exit in 2018 is less an exploration than it is something like being handed a map with a watermark 'X' on it and being told to start digging.

Secret levels are a good opportunity to do something quirky or high-concept, since people who don't like <whatever it is you decide to do> don't have to play them to finish the game (as much as "finish the game" means anything in Doom, where so many people pistol start each map).  Their optional nature makes them a "safe" place to take risks or change things up, such as throwing in a Tyson map, or doing a high-tech diversion in a mostly medieval/hell themed wad, etc.

Secret map slots is where maps go which people like me make for community projects, because they're too difficult for the majority of people, or don't fit with the overall difficulty otherwise. :P

E1M9 is not really a secret level material. It just one of the levels of the episode, just a bit more open.

I also wish Duke Nukem's Freeway and Area 51 maps were normal levels, not secret ones.

Secret maps are usually pretty gimmicky (I'm looking at you, Doom 2). I just think they're fun distractions that are neat to find, and sometimes they end up being some of the best maps in a wad.

The first time I ever played episode 2 of Doom, back in the early 90s I just went through the secret exit, not realising that it even was a secret exit. It was far too obvious to miss, and I just assumed it was a normal exit.

Talk about getting the shock of my life! Those Barons absolutely ripped me a new one, and at that time I was such a newbie to the game that I had no idea how to deal with them. I had the chainsaw equipped at the time, because I'd just discovered it in the preceding level and eager to test it out. I was so panicked by the apparently unkillable Barons that it didn't even occur to me to swap weapons to something more suitable.

After endless deaths and restarts I tried just running away from them... into the room stuffed with Cacodemons, which kicked my ass so hard it ended up in Outer Mongolia. After that I just gave up. I actually felt quite traumatised by the experience. The big nasty demons had psyched me out.

It was only later, after talking to friends that I learned that I'd entered a secret level, and that there was another, safer, way of exiting the preceding level.

For ages afterward I was irrationally afraid of Cacodemons. My mind had build them up into an enemy far stronger and more terrible than they were in reality. I always used to spam the strongest weapons against single Cacodemons - rockets, plasma, even the BFG.  It was some time before I came to realise that they could be managed quite easily with just the shotgun, or even the chainsaw/beserk - and even later before I learned to strafe properly and could handle whole rooms of them with relative ease.

49 minutes ago, Lord Snot said:

The first time I ever played episode 2 of Doom, back in the early 90s I just went through the secret exit, not realising that it even was a secret exit. It was far too obvious to miss, and I just assumed it was a normal exit.

 

Talk about getting the shock of my life! Those Barons absolutely ripped me a new one, and at that time I was such a newbie to the game that I had no idea how to deal with them. I had the chainsaw equipped at the time, because I'd just discovered it in the preceding level and eager to test it out. I was so panicked by the apparently unkillable Barons that it didn't even occur to me to swap weapons to something more suitable.

 

After endless deaths and restarts I tried just running away from them... into the room stuffed with Cacodemons, which kicked my ass so hard it ended up in Outer Mongolia. After that I just gave up. I actually felt quite traumatised by the experience. The big nasty demons had psyched me out.

 

It was only later, after talking to friends that I learned that I'd entered a secret level, and that there was another, safer, way of exiting the preceding level.

 

For ages afterward I was irrationally afraid of Cacodemons. My mind had build them up into an enemy far stronger and more terrible than they were in reality. I always used to spam the strongest weapons against single Cacodemons - rockets, plasma, even the BFG.  It was some time before I came to realise that they could be managed quite easily with just the shotgun, or even the chainsaw/beserk - and even later before I learned to strafe properly and could handle whole rooms of them with relative ease.

"Cacophobia".

So, I am currently playing Doom 2: No Rest For The Living and I just accessed the secret map, "March Of The Demons" and HOLY FUCK!! What a fun level!  And yeah, I play on UV difficulty.  I highly recommend this level!

I am the only one who uses map 32 as a testplace for newly made DECORATE stuff?

11 hours ago, Maser said:

So, I am currently playing Doom 2: No Rest For The Living and I just accessed the secret map, "March Of The Demons" and HOLY FUCK!! What a fun level!  And yeah, I play on UV difficulty.  I highly recommend this level!

That's one of my favourites too. The entire episode is as addictive as KDITD by the way.