Best Map in Ultimate Doom - Preliminary Poll #4: E3M8: Dis or E4M7: All Hell Followed?

[NaZa]

Today, the question is: E3M8: Dis or E4M7: All Hell Followed?

 

E3M8: Dis is a boss arena with a spiderdemon that's somewhat underwhelming continuously, but it provides a fair challenge on pistol start, with only a rocket launcher and a plasma with little cell power to take care of the spider.

 

E4M7: All Hell Followed is the sole contribution by Dr Sleep (may he rest in peace) for Ultimate Doom, which focuses on a wooden/marble theme that's pretty much a summary of Episode 4. Besides featuring an optional cyberdemon, it's pretty non-linear and features puzzle elements.

 

SUMMARY SO FAR:

Preliminary Poll #1 - E1M5: Phobos Lab 8 - 4 E2M7: Spawning Vats
Preliminary Poll #2 - E4M4: Unruly Evil 18 - 13 E3M1: Hell Keep

Preliminary Poll #3 - E4M2: Perfect Hatred 23 - 12 E4M5: They Will Repent

[Catpho]

Too bad E3M8 is a big letdown from a cinematic standpoint (minus the rad music).

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

It's a little unfair to pit Dis against, well, any other map, really.

E4M7, of course.

[Job]

There's absolutely no way I'd Dis Dr. Sleep in this poll. 

[DMPhobos]

Awww man Dis gets no love :(

*proceds to vote for 'And Hell Followed'*

[TakenStew22]

I love the Spider Mastermind, but I'm gonna have to obviously give this vote to Hell Followed. The map is just waaaaaayyy longer and has more stuff to do.

[Doge Sword]

What about E2M8, E4M9, and E1M1?

[galileo31dos01]

I pick E4M7 solely for being sprawling and still fun to navigate. Original boss maps are very outdated, though E3M8 is the only effective one as a standalone. 

[Jello]

Yeah, Dis kind of sucked. After playing through all of Doom, having a simple arena and an easy boss was a let-down. I did play through Doom 2 before I played Doom 1 (Early 90's, it was easier to get Doom 2 than Doom 1), so a Spider-Mastermind wasn't really a challenge.

 

This has to go to E4M7. It's a short level, but it has a clever design. For my memory refreshment I just replayed it again. Probably been 15 years since I've done so, but it was fun to play from a pistol start on UV. It's not a huge, or amazing map; but it's quite a bit funner than Dis. Although for an E4 map, it's pretty easy, even from a pistol start. Yes there's a few Barons, and a few trick doors, but overall the map isn't that hard. I think it would've done well as map 2 or 3 in Ultimate Doom. I really need to replay E4 in its entirety again, they were really fun maps; I absolutely love the brown brick and blood aesthetic that was used. It really did feel Biblical. It kind of reminds me of Blood, or rather blood reminds me of E4.

Edited September 18, 2018 by Jello

[TakenStew22]

Honestly, the Cyberdemon was a much better boss and was way more fun to fight, and you didn't have the BFG at that time.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

E3M8 is the worst shit, shouldn't even be a question.

[Jello]

19 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

I pick E4M7 solely for being sprawling and still fun to navigate. Original boss maps are very outdated, though E3M8 is the only effective one as a standalone. 

Phobos Anomaly wasn't bad at all. Linear yes, but at least it wasn't a single arena. Tower of Babel was worse, but with the pillars and the lost souls it felt more like a game of cat and mouse with the Cyberdemon.

 

Dis... dis just sucked. And I'm well aware that it was the first map that was made for Doom, but I can't help but wonder why, in the development of the entire game, someone didn't say "Hey, remember that first level we made? The last level? The ultimate showdown with the spiderdemon that has organized the invasion of Hell's armies? Yeah... it kind of sucks, maybe we should go back and touch it up".

[galileo31dos01]

1 hour ago, Jello said:

Phobos Anomaly wasn't bad at all. Linear yes, but at least it wasn't a single arena. Tower of Babel was worse, but with the pillars and the lost souls it felt more like a game of cat and mouse with the Cyberdemon.

 

Dis... dis just sucked. And I'm well aware that it was the first map that was made for Doom, but I can't help but wonder why, in the development of the entire game, someone didn't say "Hey, remember that first level we made? The last level? The ultimate showdown with the spiderdemon that has organized the invasion of Hell's armies? Yeah... it kind of sucks, maybe we should go back and touch it up".

 

The huge emptiness works in favor of the spider at least, what's bad is that there's no aesthetic or atmosphere unlike the other end-of-episode maps. Agreed that E1M8 wasn't bad in any sense, and E2M8 has initial atmosphere but always resulted in me looking for the cyberdemon stuck behind a cube or inside a chamber. So yeah, E1M8 and E4M8 are the acceptable ones.

[TakenStew22]

2 hours ago, Jello said:

And I'm well aware that it was the first map that was made for Doom

Wait, it was? Huh, that explains everything. IIRC, I heard that id Software made all the maps backwards in order from E3M8 to E1M1.

[leodoom85]

@NaZaAre you kidding? why you have to put a winner already before even the poll begins?
I'd put E4M7 with....idk...E2M6?

[NaZa]

It's seeded randomly.

[Nancsi]

They are not comparable. E2M8 or E3M8 might be a more valid question.