A shorter and better Doom II
I decided to create my own shorter, 15 (14+1) map version of Doom II. I was trying to do a 8+1 classic formula, but it was too short.
What I always thought of Doom II, that it started quite well (up to Dead Simple) with the nice starport settings, and also the last levels were really good in the hell (Map27 and Map28 had always been my favourite Petersen maps). The problem has always been the long and ugly middle section (Map8-Map25), where the worst levels can be found (including the Wolf3D maps). I don't buy the city theme at all, and that part of the game severly lacked quality and good aesthetics.
Another interesting thing that I always wondered why O of Destruction, Tenements and Abandoned Mines weren't packed together, since they have the same style like McGees maps from Underhalls to Crusher.
With that said, here is my ideal levelorder:
1. Entryway (not a good map, but iconic in its own way, and music is fantastic... also Underhalls doesn't fit for a starter map)
2. Underhalls
3. The Gauntlet
4. The Focus
5. The Waste Tunnels
6. The Crusher
7. Dead Simple
8. O of Destruction (with one secret serving as a secret exit)
9. Tenements (with a modified sky)
10. The Abandoned mines
11. Monster Condo
12. The Spirit World
13. The Living End
14. Icon of Sin (not a fan again, but TLE is not a good map for ending)
15. Gotcha! (the ideal secret level)
What would be your shorter and better version of Doom II?
Broke: Cutting out Doom 2's maps to make a shorter game.
Woke: Rearranging Doom 2's maps into episodes.
Episode 1: "The Infested Starport"
E1M1: Entryway
E1M2: Underhalls
E1M3: The Gantlet
E1M4: The Focus
E1M5: The Waste Tunnels
E1M6: The Crusher (exit to secret level)
E1M7: Dead Simple
E1M8: Refueling Base
E1M9: Circle of Death
E1M0: Tricks and Traps (secret level)
Episode 2: "Last Man on Earth"
E2M1: The Pit
E2M2: The Factory
E2M3: Downtown
E2M4: Tenements
E2M5: Industrial Zone (exit to secret level)
E2M6: Suburbs
E2M7: The Abandoned Mines
E2M8: The Citadel
E2M9: Gotcha!
E2M0: The Courtyard (secret level)
Episode 3: "Corruption"
E3M1: Nirvana
E3M2: The Catacombs
E3M3: The Inmost Dens
E3M4: The Chasm (exit to secret level)
E3M5: Bloodfalls
E3M6: Monster Condo
E3M7: The Spirit World
E3M8: The Living End
E3M9: Icon of Sin
E3M0: Barrels o' Fun (secret level)
There you go. All maps accounted for*, with some slight rearrangement to fit the episodic structure & theme better (e.g. the Mines/Dens swap and bumping Tenemants between Downtown and Industrial Zone so you don't get the two huge city sandboxes back-to-back). I couldn't really think of a great opener for the second episode, so I settled on moving The Pit forward to precede The Factory. Still un-ideal, but it's a thing.
Secret levels were chosen by picking the oddest of the oddballs, secret exits on E1/E3 are arbitrary, and the episode names are just stuff I made up after perusing the Doom 2 story texts.
We'll also need a couple of music swaps to prevent the same music from playing twice in an episode. Here's an arbitrary suggestion:
Circle of Death: D_TENSE
The Abandoned Mines: D_DDTBLU
The Inmost Dens: D_MESSAG
I suppose in this alternate universe, The Pit and Circle of Death would see the most changes from their real-world counterparts, since they'd need to be adjusted a bit to fit as an episode starter/ender, and the temptation to add new boss encounters is there. Sacrilege, I know, but what isn't? :P
[*OK, I left the Wolfenstein maps off since they're kinda dumb, but pretend you can unlock them by finding all 3 secret maps or something.]
[EDIT] 'Cause I know at least one person's going to ask "Why is Dead Simple not the E1 ender?", it's because that's the big reveal of Arachs and Mancs and it'd suck if their presence was spoiled in earlier maps. But if we're willing to imagine Refueling Base and Circle of Death don't have any, we could totally place Dead Simple at the end and call it a boss map. Problem solved, eh?
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