The DWmegawad Club plays: A.L.T.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP22: Acidjazz

 

This is a pretty peculiar map, combining a well-developed chemical plant theme with A.L.T.'s signature nodules of embedded weirdness and coupling the whole thing to a style of progression that I can't really claim to have done more than muddled my way through.  By the end of it all I was missing the blue key, one secret, and a handful of monsters, and with no apparent way back I had little choice but to put a bullet in the Icon's third eye and call it done.  I don't think the map does a particularly good job of communicating goals or directions to the player; I felt there was a lot of blindly stumbling forward and making leaps of faith into toxic slime, hoping that there was a path of progression to be found somewhere in the muck, rather than clear problems to quite deliberately solve or known objectives to pursue.  I didn't know what either the red or yellow keys were for or where I would be using them when I picked them up, for example; I don't know if that's typical of the experience of playing through this map, maybe even intentional, or not, but it feels like a missed opportunity to give the player direction and purpose.  That said, I'm not going to complain too much, as it contrasts quite nicely with the rather more constrained and signposted progression of the previous map.  If this rest of the WAD is like this, though, I think my patience for aimlessness is going to wear thin pretty quickly.

[gaspe]

MAP22: Another techbase and this is a proper nukage facility. The whole southern where you have to get the 3 keys half is quite complicated. At the start you don't have so much options of where to go but soon the map shows its puzzle-soul with lots of switches to press but the more studied feature of the map is the navigation of the complex. There's lots of back and forth to do and you will get back to previous areas lot of times while you figure out how the things work and how you can get to some areas and many routes you can choose are one-way. Things get a bit more straightforward in the circular area at north. The puzzle at the 1-2-3-4 switches has almost the same mechanism of the A-B-C-D puzzle of MAP31. Those skeany light amplification goggles are placed there to mess with the solution. The exit area is weird, shootable switches that you'll press more probably while you are fighting and a confrontation with a IoS where you blow some barrels to kill it. I discovered this time that nearby there's another exit switch that you can use before the IoS area.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 07 -- Pirates

This may well be one of the most encounter-focused levels in the entire set, with a certain daffy choreography to opening areas, where from pistol-start you are strongly behooved to use the arachnatrons in their pillboxes or whatchacallthem to mow through the thick, thick fields of bouncing, roving pinky-flesh, before settling into a much more sedate/unremarkable room-clearing affair in its second half, set on some kind of Doomcute-but-not-quite-as-much-as-m01 offshore installation. Despite my earlier assertion that I think ALT for the most part takes itself deadpan seriously (and more power to it for that, IMO!), I reckon it's hard to imagine that the scene of demons besieging the installation (and by dint of circumstance, the protagonist) from a bunch of little wooden pirate skiffs can be delivered without at least some measure of levity. Still, if we were to want to insist on being implacably Silent Hill about it all, we might interpret this is an ironic reflection and reversal of the protagonist's own vocation in life, no?

 

Map 08 -- Psychodelia

Presumably a relatively early/developmental work by Archi, who since the release of ALT has come to be known for a very different style from that seen here. This being my second time playing the WAD, I have to remark that the level didn't seem to leave much of an impression the first time, in that my experience this time around was marked more by vague déjà vu than by actual recollection, but after finishing again I think I'd say it's better/more interesting in most regards than its much more immediately memorable followup in m09. It begins in fairly unassuming territory, rattling around in a collection of rather dreary, spartan low-ceiled corridors which don't make a particularly interesting first impression, but eventually expands into much larger, more colorful and concept-driven areas as things progress, with notions of overlapping realities (some much more obviously warped than others) which play a credible part in regular and even a bit of optional progression.

 

The comparatively drab start and the more gradual and even layered descent (or ascent?) into much more pronounced weirdness (read: largely ordinary/classic Doom II abstraction) plays fairly well with the previously established concept, and while it perhaps lacks a certain subtlety in tone in comparison to Azamael's own early-game maps ('subtlety' being something that he too more or less abandons roughly around the halfway mark), it's easier to believe that this was a level built specifically for the finishing stage of the ALT project, as opposed to something conveniently at hand and then repurposed as such, which is how many of the other guest maps read (to me).

 

Map 09 -- Freeze

This is another of the set's more memorable maps, as aforesaid, seeing the protagonist step through a liquid mirror (or 'time portal', who knows?) into a cold, grayscale pocket dimension peopled by spectral shades, some of which seem to be reflections of entities inhabiting what we might dubiously term "the real world", and some....not. While it at first seems that the grayscale dimension is an overlapping sub-plane of reality ala those from m08 (and other maps in the set), later this becomes unclear, as the two seem to directly (if messily) intersect somewhere around the exit area. In the context of the larger narrative I suppose we might best interpret this as an aside intended to more openly suggest the notion of layers or states of being which exist outside the ordinary flow of time, though its self-contained nature and somewhat abrupt/singular placement in the running order arguably diminishes/muddies its impact in this regard, to the extent it's even the point.

 

As a play experience, well, as said it's memorable, at least, mainly for aesthetic reasons. The greyscale textures are a marked shift in theme, and it's a bold move to use this many backend resources for the creation of the spectral enemies featuring almost solely in what amounts to an early game one-off (there's a spectral imp all by his lonesome in m31, can't recall offhand if any of these others make any significant reappearance in the late game), certainly. But, in practical terms, the diversion is very brief, the action is very sparse/simplistic with almost no depth or nuance (perhaps excepting the Petersenesque 'casual' placement of the YK), and the impact of the thematic shift dampened by the large but ungainly tappy/snipe-y ooze silo near the end, which seems like something from a different map.

 

Map 10 -- The Clairvoyant

Another casual Iron Maiden reference? Maybe not?

 

The first of three (I think?) maps by TGA, not an author I'm familiar with outside of what appears in ALT. Whereas there's some room for interpretation (in the absence of 'official' confirmation) whether maps like "Sanctuary" and "Psychodelia" were built specifically for the ALT setting/concept, this is the first of the guest maps which gives a pronounced impression of being an outside work plugged in to fill a mapslot--indeed, IIRC Ella Guro's blog piece mentions that the starry black "sky" (it's really more like glow-in-the-dark star paint on a popcorn ceiling in effect, yeah?) was an editorial change made to make it read more surreal/more ALT, and if you try to imagine it without this it's pretty easy to see its straightfaced base/refinery theme shared with its siblings in later slots.

 

As a map, I reckon it falls somewhere in that wide stretch of the scale we might call "decent", with some interesting features but also a considerable measure of very dry content. The black/grey look in the main area arising from the editorial changes is a fairly striking one, and there is some interesting use of height variation in this space, though in practice it impacts simple traversal much more than combat, factoring into a number of secrets, which I'd say are the level's best design feature. Side areas are less interesting, somewhat stodgily cramped fight-through-the-door affairs without much real flavor. The two-stage monster reveal in the YK room can be a mite hot if you play it really aggressively, though I'd warrant this is the kind of level where if you're doing that it's probably precisely because you're antsy/in active rebellion against the, uh......"decentness", as it doesn't really seem to invite or assume this as a matter of natural design.

 

I reckon my favorite thing about the level is the BGM track, it's absolutely lovely, whatever it is! IMO many of the music selections later on in ALT are rather grating/unfitting (and this is something I often feel about many Russian mapsets, to whit, not just ALT), and so it became a fast IDMUS go-to for those occasions.

 

[Capellan]

MAP23

Provocative title, evocative opening vista ... but my word, the red key slog in this is awful. It's a real shame that so much of the map is wasted on this boring, literal corridor crawl, especially given that there are some interesting set pieces on either side of it, but the only real memory I am going to carry away from this is that tedious bloody tunnel.

 

 

[Demon of the Well]

Map 11 -- Recall

Quite like this one, reckon it's probably one of my favorite maps in the game (also the first instance of IDMUS 10, incidentally!). The sole contribution by an otherwise unknown author, it's difficult to tell if it's made specifically for the ALT concept or if it's a repurposed solo work; the thematics of the RK reveal and a few other minor flavor/aesthetic touches would seem to suggest the former, though these could just as well have been editorial editions, I suppose. Whatever the case, the evergreen trope of themed sub-worlds which dominates progression for the first half of the map fits the story/setting naturally enough. My interpretation is that these different sub-worlds aren't so much different dimensions or times as they are fragments or possibly literal recreations of the protagonist's memories (hence the map's name)--his home, a base or installation of some kind, a seedy urban dive. The brief trip to what looks like a crumbling ancient battlement of some sort is harder to call, perhaps, but a little imagination suggests it might be the site of some past treasure-seeking expedition or the like.

 

These places are of course packed with monsters, which apart from serving a purely practical gameplay function also raises the question of what they're doing there, a question with no clear answer. Are they functionally 'real' places conceived as hellish mockeries by some evil force inhabiting the ruins? Are they direct recall of past battles? Could it be that these journeys are all in the mind?

 

This part of the map, and the sprawling lava caverns which frame it, are entertaining mainly as narrative/sightseeing pieces, perhaps, with the actual action reading as more of a placeholder or formality, mainly clearing rooms and remembering to check corners and things of that nature (though some of the arch-vile 'gotcha!' moments in the sub-worlds are certainly amusing), but the second half of the map, set in the nameless 'dead ruins', is as adventurous in concept as the first half was in its setting. I'm particularly fond of the stair-climb in the massive, vaulted two-tone 'pillars' chamber, with its surprising (if deceptively simplistic) transformation at the top. The abstract 'dark halls' maze, which is really only a maze for the least observant among us, does a good job of creating a sense of urgency in a context where usually the exact opposite feeling tends to dominate (though it surely plays like ass if you insist on maxkills, I suppose). I also feel the surprise IoS-style showdown makes a nice climactic topper, seated in a visually striking environment and being at once delightfully violent (extremely high spawn rate, invitation to a V-sphere spree, etc.) and yet low-commitment, very easy to leave whenever you feel like it with just a touch of know-how.

 

Map 12 -- Pre-Paterna

The second of the TGA maps, and probably the weakest, in my estimation. The setting is some slightly odd carved zimmer-rooms (with light tech and marble trappings) perched on either side of a steep underground river-canyon of some sort, but this potentially interesting broader location has literally no bearing on the play or feel of moving room to room. Physical proportions are extremely cramped throughout, with very little height variation, and 99% of encounters taking place as frontal CQC attacks, including a reprise of the author's quirky penchant for direct face-to-face standoffs with spider masterminds. Occasionally the sheer volume of enemy forces stuffed into small spaces are slightly surprising and thus momentarily enlivening, as with the revenant groups around the RK area, but for the most part this is a very drab, forgettable affair.

 

Map 13 -- Knee-Deep in Waste

Given that ALT has its origins in what was more or less a personal, solo project, and that any such project normally entails a ton of work over some significant expanse of time, I get the sense that another contributing factor to the set's perceived 'artiness' is that there's a considerable stylistic or experience gap not only between its different contributors, but in some cases between Azamael's maps themselves. I'm not sure how extensive his public release catalogue is--that is, not sure whether or not I've played all of it--but I have played his earliest stuff, "Time of Sorrow" and thereabouts, and the style seen here strikes me as considerably closer to that earlier period of his work versus some of the more focused or 'mature' material seen in the early and late-game stages of ALT.

 

Framed around a huge reservoir of toxic waste, and loosely united by a general nukage base/toxin refinery visual theme throughout, in effect "Knee-Deep in Waste" is a disparate collection of conceptually discrete/unrelated areas scattered around the fringes of what is basically a massive, featureless (and essentially gameplay-free) null space, achieving a similar effect of isolation between different areas that other recent maps have tended to create through teleporters and such. There is a very 90s flavor to much of the material, both in terms of its very conceptually-focused discrete areas and somewhat tenuous, catch-as-catch-can overall arrangement. While there are undoubtedly many inelegances involved in traversal and navigation here, and it's often unclear what you're accomplishing (if anything), ala that strange skullswitch 'nerve center' place, there is also an undeniable sense of adventure at play, and a truly classically Doom-y one at that, not eliding so much from this or that pretty vista or narrative/diegetic hook (which are basically nonexistent in this map, further suggesting its base might predate ALT as a concept) as from the trials and tribulations involved in getting to, getting into and then getting through the different areas themselves.

 

One of the most truly non-linear levels in ALT, the pistol-start balance has a certain uneven fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants quality that appeals to me, and while the level's somewhat mum/unapproachable veneer makes it easy to miss, there are evidently a number of different ways to complete it, with at least three different red keycards available to let you into the final building. I've managed to get two of them as of now, but still haven't figured out how to get the one atop the crate on the cargo platform in the middle of the reservoir. This openness is mitigated somewhat by the need to remotely lower additional barriers inside that final building, granted, but still, there's a lot of scope for making your own particular way, likely to be different from that of other players, and even though I endeavored to be thorough there was still evidently a number of things I didn't see. In monstercount terms at least I suspect some of this probably owes to some minor mechanical dysfunction with the map (which is a not uncommon issue in ALT, particularly this middle stretch), but nevertheless the intrigue remains, a pleasure characteristic of this particular style of map.

[ella guro]

i love Map 22/AcidJazz. it is a very smart map. it starts off in a typical non-linear "hubspoke" progression, but quickly dispenses with that from there. i am totally impressed with how 3 dimensional it feels, and how much overlapping of tunnels and areas there are. and yes, it is very confusing, but it also grows on you a lot. it's so completely dense and labyrinthine in a way that always feels surprising and unexpected instead of the slog that a lot of mazey maps can feel like. it's an interesting contrast to the more wide-open, linear maps that Azamael has done in the set. but like Azamael's Map 13, it takes a nominally typical stock Doom texture theme and then does something very strange with it. you can see various places where hell has unexpectedly invaded into this tech base. but it feels much weirder than your usual "hell invades the techbase" scenario. that's why i like both maps so much. they're obviously Doom, but not at all Doom at the same time. it's like you're revisiting something familiar but it's become strange and alien now. no maps capture that better than this one and Map 13, hence why they're my favorite in the set overall.

 

i'm not as fond of the last part in the numbered arena, but it's at least a decent conclusion that pushes more of the story/narrative forward. BeeWen/Lestat's WIP set Voyager is worth checking out too, though it goes much farther in the direction of being very long and difficult to navigate. I like how focused Map 22 is in comparison.

 

also re: Map 23, i don't have as much to say. i agree that the progression gets tedious. i think this is one of the toughest maps in ALT to get through. but i think the long stretch of winding hallway goes on for so long that it becomes kind of hilarious. it really feels like memory totally breaking down and recycling bits and pieces. it's kind of a harbinger for the rest of the set becoming super abstract. this map is mostly by BeeWen outside the initial few areas and the very ending couple areas, by the way - he just isn't credited for it.

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP21: Fracture

21:19 | 98% Kills | 85% Items | 75% Secrets

This is very much an A.L.T. techbase. Some tricksy switches, lots of hidden narrow passageways, lots of teleports to differently-themed areas, progression that feels like, "Hey, where does this go?" but still ends up being fairly linear. Nothing too difficult here, combat-wise (at least on HMP). But that timed switch can die in a fire. Took me probably ten attempts to get it (I got sick of running back and forth and just reloaded from a save after a few tries.) Loved the little Doom Washroom. And what was up with all of the berserk packs everywhere? I left two behind, and only picked up a third because I knew I had left two behind. I never went back for them because of that completely unmarked (and utterly anticlimactic) exit room; killed the mancs, hit the left switch, hit the right switch, hit the center sw--wait, what, that's then end?! My previous save was just before entering the spider/imp amphitheater; I thought about reloading and grabbing those remaining items and trying to find that last secret, but nah. I liked this level, but no that much.

[Capellan]

35 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

that timed switch can die in a fire

 

Prepare yourself for worse ...

 

[Crusader No Regret]

Still banging out the Map 11 writeup.  In the meantime, I've gathered my thoughts for the next one.

 

Map 12: 99% kills, 5/7 secrets

 

  Compared to the spectacle of the last map, this one is very conventional in appearance.  Drop it into a more conventional set and it still wouldn't seem out of place.  Straightforward gameplay that feels very claustrophobic with the tight confines.  There was much ducking through teleportors throughout the trip which takes out most of the sting.  However you approach things, be ready to act fast. Still got crazy at the barricade with two pain elementals.  The baron meat pit where the red key is can go eff itself; rest of the map is inoffensive enough.  Did not remember all the secrets from my previous trip.  Only one spiderdemon on HMP which resulted in a demon chewing it up.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP23: God Is Dead

 

...Which is painted on the road, visible from your starting point, in case you were unclear on the WAD's opinion here.  The explosive kick you're treated to, ejecting you from the little elevated cubbyhole where you start, that's a nice touch that contributes to the atmosphere, too.  No safe spots, no hiding holes; advance or die.  The music is nicely atmospheric too, there isn't a list of music credits in the text file but it feels like a MIDI rendition of a track from the Unreal Tournament sort of era?  Not that I'm thinking of a particular track, it's just got that kind of impression to it, maybe it's an original composition after all.

 

In some ways Azamael is returning to familiar territory here, dropping the player into the sort of urban-industrial hybrid environment we've seen so much of already, especially in the early levels of the WAD, but there's been a significant change, a progression, in the atmosphere here.  No longer is the city a ruined place of suffocating melancholy; this is not the domain of the unquiet and unhappy dead.  Instead, the hostility here is palpable; the wicked spirits inhabiting this place have been roused from their reverie and they teem and throng, hungry for the blood of the bold and the foolhardy.  It's as though a fog has lifted and the veil has been drawn back to reveal the rotten heart and churning black blood of whatever enclave of evil the so-long-ago plane crash has develivered you unto.

 

(Also, thoughts I found myself thinking after flipping a certain switch in a certain security room in the south-west region of the map: "You know, I really wish there had been a shortcut opened up at some point; climbing over the tops of all those crates again just sounds tedious and I'm not sure I can be bothered."  And then I head back inside, and lo and behold!)

 

Speaking of tedious... ye gods that octagonal spiral to the south.  Who thought that was a good idea?  I swear it contains half the map's monster population in a cramped but endless corridor, filled with the building blocks of discarded architecture, abandoned maps, and half-realised ideas, and to get to the middle of it all you have little choice except to punch, cut, and blast your way through layer after layer of gristly meat and shambling bone.  At least there's a quick way out once you get to the centre and snag the red key, and there is something interesting about the presentation of obstacles along the path of the spiral, great cuboids of brick and metal and door-texture that remind me of nothing so much as Minecraft environmental blocks, but it overstays its welcome.

 

After that, the tail end of the map - the hunt for the blue key, and the handful of chambers beyond - represents a return to what Azamael is good at, with familiar industrial facilities and urban interiors showing increasing evidence of demonic progression as we make our way toward the end of the level and of the WAD as a whole, which isn't far off now.  I think the laborious spiral section breaks up the flow of what is otherwise an excellent and very engaging map, though I'm quite possibly overstating that as I ended up compelled to take a break after the spiral for out-of-game concerns.  @Demon of the Well has identified Azamael's maps as representing the heart of the A.L.T. experience and with only one map out of the remaining seven not an Azamael map, I think we're very much going to be seeing that heart from here on out.  Time for cardiac surgery... with a chainsaw!

[Demon of the Well]

Map 14 -- Legacy

A direct continuation of m13 in terms of both place and style, though for my part I don't like this one so much. Certainly one of the WAD's stingiest pistol-starts, this, the going is extremely slow in terms of available arsenal unless one immediately discovers certain secrets, particularly the hidden plasma gun in the sort of 'Underhalls' junction in the northwest half of the map. The seldom-seen special exit type at the conclusion of m13 sees continuous players begin at a very low health total (and I suppose it's reasonable enough to presume you'd get banged up if you flung yourself down an industrial ooze-chute, to say the least), leaving them momentarily vulnerable to a cheeky bullet delivered by one of the zombies in the opening area, but this is quickly addressed by the easily-accessible soulsphere in that same chamber.

 

However well-off the player may or may not be at this point, regardless, the northwestern part of the map, which must be navigated in total in order to get the yellow key, is an offputting slog any way you slice it, with the pair of revenant lift/channel rooms being the worst offenders. Though these read like hardened checkpoints meant to be methodically cleared (whereas large groups of monsters in ALT often don't seem like they're really intended to be fought outright), if your health and armor allow it I would advise skipping through, since you'll be forced to pass back through a second time shortly after to find it entirely restaffed with even more awkwardly perched snipers to be dutifully pecked down one at a time, supplemented by one of a few rather dysfunctional slow-trickle monster teleporters to appear on this map, behooving you to wait and wait and then wait some more for a good angle. Some might complain of 'poor progression' in these maps because you sometimes have to investigate the environment to find out what certain interactions do, which seldom phases me; this setup, by contrast, is an example of truly poorly-designed progression, where you have to traverse the same obnoxious space twice (where once would certainly suffice) as a means of padding runtime.

 

The blue key, as designed, is not nearly as much of a chore to get, fortunately. Its implementation is somewhat odd in that you'll in all likelihood have it long before ever finding out what it's for, perhaps, though this is simply a harmless eccentricity, IMO. Incidentally, once you know where it is, it's pretty easy to simply dash over and grab it right as the level begins, before it has a chance to be elevated out of reach as planned.

 

The level's conclusion is somewhat limp, owing again to a highly ineffective/unreliable monster teleportation setup. Again there's a certain strangeness in all of that security protecting a big dramatic teleporter enclave that simply transports you to the other side of a small iron fence on the main level, but you know, Doom.

 

Map 15 -- Memoris Spiritus

Another highly memorable level, with a unique bright tile-mosaic/void aesthetic and a certain air of upbeat tranquillity which stands in marked contrast to the cold, disconsolate feel of most of the rest of the game. Little more than a pair of simple observational puzzles, it's over almost before you know it, which is perhaps the reason why BeeWeen reportedly chose to add the trip down memory lane to its back half. Mostly a brief, pleasant diversion (whereas in many WADs m15 tends to be framed as something of a grand undertaking), there's relatively little I'm inclined to fault here, though I might observe that the three identical waves of caco-turrets appearing in the four-point floor-maze puzzle are probably more than a mite excessive, if not entirely unnecessary. You get your choice of exit, no strings attached, at the conclusion, the destinations implied by markings on the teleporters themselves.

 

The trips back to maps from the original game are charming enough in concept, particularly the comparatively seldom-referenced "Phobos Anomaly", and it's oddly cathartic to re-kill those poor long-dead bastards moments after the viles finally resurrect them. Knowing that these segments were editorial additions after the fact, however, their inclusion strikes me as something of a narrative gaffe--the tone of the story heretofore seems best served by the protagonist having an entirely unknown past and standing apart from IWAD-Doomguy, and this conflation of identity throws a bit of a spanner in the works as regards other hints to his past and vocation. Still, this being Doom, and so much being unexplained even once one has the 'whole picture', with a little imagination it's pretty easy to reconcile this with whatever your personal headcanon happens to be, so no big deal in the end, I suppose!

 

Map 31 -- [B0S]

* sits motionless, listening to the midi selection for about 15 seconds *

 

....aaaaaand IDMUS 10.

 

BeeWen is a difficult mapper to pin down, in either tone or style. Apart from serving as what we might call the 'producer' of ALT as we now know it, evidently polishing some maps and finishing others, this author also contributed a handful of maps of their own, which to me all read as having a very pronounced oldschool  'abstract adventure' flair--in a mostly positive way!, ala Bob Evans or Ray Schmitz or some personage of that nature. This particular map positively *smacks* of the 90s in conception, its blueprint laid down primarily to spell out the now defunct clan's name on the automap, with the polyglot level design being form-fit to these structural demands. Each of the three major areas, shaped after the letters, presents a different riddle, mostly navigational in nature, though the starting "B" area is perhaps a bit more of a puzzle in the proper sense (the two brackets are also included as secret areas, involved in reaching m32).

 

From a player experience standpoint, the flow is perhaps a mite 'backwards' in that the dark, dingy, and somewhat abstruse design of the "B" leaves something of an uncharismatic first impression. Persevere through this and later areas are more approachable, the "O" being comparatively brief/simple to navigate while inviting one to spectate a huge monster moshpit in its center after dropping down to reach the YK, and the "S" being a refreshingly airy outdoor cityscape with mostly clear progression and a disproportionate share of the many secrets. There are two ways (that I know of) to reach the other side of the collapsed road, both which feel a mite janky/somewhat metagamey, which those of a certain temperament are sure to relish--you can tiptoe around the very western edge of the skyline at its highest level (seeing some HOM and such in the void space to the west while doing so), or make a somewhat tricky SR50 from the roof of the building across the gateposts just before the road collapses.

 

The optional/hidden "bracket" segments are......something else, for sure. The western one is like foul-tasting medicine, little for it but to hold your nose and try to get it over with as quickly as possible. No one in their right mind (and very few in the wrong one, I'd warrant) truly believes this kind of setup to be enjoyable, and so the purpose of its function invites some mental abstraction. To me, on the surface it reads as something of a wink and nod to the nighted D-reels of the 90s, where things like this in the wild west of amateur design were not uncommon. More cleverly, its relation to its counterpart to the east: having endured that first bracket, seeing the second surely elicits something of a groan, but if you take stock of your surroundings before plowing in again you'll find that the eastern bracket can be easily skipped in its entirely, allowing you access to the super-secret level without having to endure a second slog. I'm personally disinclined to read as much overt humor or playfulness into ALT's design as some, but if this isn't a cheeky jape I don't know what is. :)

 

Map 32 -- Bonus Track

Ass-ugly lab-rat experiment ahoy! With the possible exception of the cyberdemon and group of arch-viles in the final area, the combat in this map may as well not exist, its main point being to try to figure out how to reach the northern room when most of the possible paths are lined with seemingly inescapable death-traps. That this is technically optional to progression (near as I can tell, anyway) says it all about this map, really. Best thing I can say for it is that I really like to see powerup items used as crucial progression pieces, versus the more straightforward door/switch/key trinity.

 

[gaspe]

MAP23: To me this is the map that officially opens the last, and strangest, part of ALT. It's named after one of the most famous philosophical ideas, and you can also see it painted on the road from the starting point. It's quite unsettling in the beginning, from the starting point you are welcomed by an explosion from behind (that can even kill you if you come from the previous level with not enough health), the road seems deserted and when you turn around the corner to see that the road ahead is filled with corpses of demons and players. The first encounters happen inside the building and they do well to keep the uneasy feeling going on. The place is dark and the big hall is filled with pillars and blocks that many have imps sniping from the top while other monsters on the floor lurk behind the corners. A cute sector sword hints of where you have to go. Going down the stairs first gives the SSG, and a more clear idea of you have to do but to progress in the level from the lift that reveals the passage you have to stay on top of it for some platforming until you can manage to understand where you have to go and get on the upper walkway build along the first street. Some sneaky passages and puzzles open the way to the main part of the level, the RK spiral. It's a linear corridor that doesn't seem to end, filled with blocks and materials made with almost all the different Doom textures that obstruct the way and give the monsters many hideouts. Going back to the RK and BK switches now it's time to look for the other key. The room with the spiraling staircase is weird, you can only kill the monsters that will block you way while those in the hellish realm of flesh and red rocks aren't even placed properly to pose a threat, almost as if they are there as decoration. Same for a couple of cacos behind the green falls. I like the placement of the BK, from the first time you see it's natural to think that the spiral will eventually lead there. The finale is simple but probably deserved for the player after what he went through, there a lecture hall (maybe?) with a little puzzle and then straight to the end. The exit is sneaky becuase you can easily miss the last secret and the whole view of the area with a boat that will take you to the next level. And a sector fish.

 

1 hour ago, TheOrganGrinder said:

The music is nicely atmospheric too, there isn't a list of music credits in the text file but it feels like a MIDI rendition of a track from the Unreal Tournament sort of era?  Not that I'm thinking of a particular track, it's just got that kind of impression to it, maybe it's an original composition after all.

The music of this level is one of my favourites from the wad but the midi file doesn't have informations at all, I would like to know where this is from . I don't think you far off, to me it seems very likely that it's a track taken from some obscure game.

Maybe, @BeeWen do you have a credit list of the songs?

[Pirx]

12 minutes ago, gaspe said:

 

Maybe, @BeeWen do you have a credit list of the songs?

 

A list of the soundtracks used would  be nice indeed. I've heard the music from map01 somewhere,  perhaps in a movie, but can't remember where. Anyway most pieces are fitting and atmospheric. 

 

And it's entertaining to read loquacious posts again.

 

Damn, it's the last third of the month already and I've barely been able to play anything  :(

[Demon of the Well]

Map 16 -- Dead Calm

This was another map which evidently left little real impression on me after my first playthrough (which was years ago, when the WAD was more or less newly released, granted), though seeing the big chain-reaction of exploding barrels in the first large yard did serve to jog my memory at least a little bit. Its hallmarks are a pronounced sense of space, here communicated mainly in tallness vs. the author's usual penchant for wide expanse, and odd progression. Not 'unintuitive' or 'hard to follow' or anything of the sort, mind you....just odd, with relatively short distances often covered by rather convoluted yet often colorful series of hops, skips, and sundry mechanical interactions. The setting is ostensibly another part of the nukage base first introduced in m13 earlier, but unlike in that earlier pair of Azamael's maps set in this same location the presentation here is in a more traditional Doom II style, something like an abstract impression of industrial plant architecture, vs. the more realistic trappings from earlier. Perhaps this signifies an older build, or maybe the presence of another mapper?

 

Again I'm struck by how much of a huge difference in the experience (from pistol-start) finding the secrets or not makes. The issue of marked hardship vs. merely dull slog that plagued the early parts of m14 is thankfully absent, and for the most part this level is much more playable than that one either way; it's more a case of finding even a handful of the hidden stuff turns you into an unstoppable juggernaut in short order, vs. otherwise fairly normal/nondescript action. A less critical way of looking at this, I suppose, would be to ask whether or not the secrets themselves are fun to find, which they mostly are, and so in some sense there is a positive tradeoff.

 

Map 17 -- Reaction of Pain

"Ewwww, a normal Doom map in my ALT, gross, get it awaaaaay!" :D

 

I would put it to you that 95% of the actual action content in this relatively modest map is virtually interchangeable in style, pace, and substance with that seen in the first two thirds of ALT proper, which I suppose is a testament to the power of branding, of which none of us are fully immune. Not to say that the stylistic differences are insignificant, mind you. Confirmed to have been made as a stopgap, what this map lacks that many of the others feature prominently is a certain sense of pomp and circumstance, fielding no particularly big or visually striking spaces, no conceptual gameplay setpieces, and no narrative advancement of note. The setting is a competently if somewhat modestly realized military base, of that somewhat restless stock style which changes textures approximately every other room without ever seeming to actually shift in overall theme or appearance very much. Fights take place largely through doors and the occasional window, and emphasize repeated execution of basic combat actions rather than elaborate maneuvering or any real strategy. Progression is a staccato back-and-forth between areas driven by lots of doors, lots of switches, and the occasional key.

 

It is, in other words, more ALT, plain and simple. But, perhaps, an ALT without its frilly cravat, flared trousers, and ringmaster's hat on, without the sense of cinema. And perhaps that makes all the difference...?

 

Map 18 -- Save Your Life

Second verse, same as the first. The followup to m17, by the same author, is for the most part a steady continuation of the same style and pace (and also the same setting), though there are a couple of Deimos-style additions here and there, most notably the wood/snakeskin crusher/telefrag obstacle, rather quaint (about the size of a condo living room), which features early on. To be quite honest, these more micro-conceptual asides read to me like they're shoehorned in as some kind of not entirely sincere/passionate concession to the WAD's overall brand or tone, a discordant element that comes off as more artificial than immersive, and so between the two I reckon I actually prefer m17, though despite some of my bemusement as expressed above I don't really disagree with the consensus that these are two of the set's weakest/less interesting maps.

 

The arch-vile that others have mentioned has ended up at the player start point literally every time I've looked at the map, by the by. I thought it was intentional!

 

Map 19 -- Point of Return

The last of TGA's maps in the set, and probably the one with the most personality, though whether that's a good or bad thing is doubtless in the eye of the beholder. If the author's earlier maps in ALT could fairly be described as 'cramped', this one is surely super-cramped, probably the most claustrophobic stretch of terrain in the whole game. This might fairly be argued to be in keeping with the ongoing setting, of course, this level taking place in the guts of the refinery, where bipeds where presumably not meant to tread with any regularity.

 

The heavily constrained blueprint means that this is a considerably more action-focused level than most by ALT standards, boiling down to a rapidfire series of nearly constant combat encounters at literally point-blank range in the early going, shifting to some more spectacle-for-the-sake-of-it goofball stuff in the later stages, including a couple of V-sphere tantrums and what basically amounts to a spitball-flicking contest with yet another of TGA's beloved spidermoms across about six feet of distance. Hardly high art in any sense, there's a certain unabashedly sloppy, roughneck quality to the proceedings that I kind of like, with the chainsaw serving as primary weapon for a time from pistol-start (how often can you say that?) and most encounters designed as bruising scuffles where you seem to be assumed to take damage, lay waste with abandon, and then heal through your injuries, all in a matter of seconds, before the next spat inevitably breaks out through this or that hyperactive lift or trapdoor or whatnot seconds later.

 

 

 

 

[Capellan]

MAP24

I think it's a mistake to put monsters at the start, in the "hand shaft" room and the long blood corridor to the yellow key. Better to have left everything as empty as the rest of the map at the start, and only finally unleash critters when you have grabbed the red key. You'd need to work out how to do this in such a way that the player wakes some beasties, but I think the wholly oppressive emptiness that would achieve would be even better than the foreboding the map currently achieves.

 

The walkway run to end the map seems a little pointless, given that the map drops an invuln on you right before you teleport up there.

 

 

[gaspe]

MAP24: Time for a slaughtermap. There's a drastic change of scenery the rather colorful sky with planets is gone and replaced with pitch black darkness, you can still the sea from where you came and the main central building is sorrounded by castle walls at south and at east. Maybe I'm probably reading too much into it but the battlements remind a similar little segment of MAP11. You have a solitary intro, barring few imps at docks and the optional plasmarifle room. Nice move to put that near the start it's quite a death trap if you go there first without collecting the weapons first (on pistol start). The stacks of weapons are repeated 3 times and there's the mandatory room filled with ammo. The YK can be picked any time, well after you get into a somewhat hidden passage and then teleport under the floating giant starfish. The big stuff happens at the RK. First you have to get through a lava maze without the automap help and when you get to the key the Sturm begins and mosnters will start to flood the whole place. This is rather well designed as to progress now you have to press 5 red switches scattered in the central building that is full of openings and windows, monsters can easily get to unexpected places and it's better to stay outside until infighting does its job. The closets aren't well designed though, some monsters can easily wander inside them and never reach the teleport lines. Plus a couple of cyberdemons are set to be deaf so they'll never join the battle. After the yellow door there's a surprise Romero's head and an invuln for final the tour on the battlements against few revs and imps, and a blur sphere too. I wonder if these kind of stuff are incidents of the troubled development and some things were still wip or got axed, also poking with the editor in some maps you can find tagged lines and their related tagged sector don't exist.

 

+++ Garrulismo

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP22: Acidjazz

56:47 | 100% Kills | 87% Items | 100% Secrets

I agree with @TheOrganGrinder above that progression and even what the crap am I supposed to do? is unnecessarily obtuse here. The yellow key is the only thing that's really signposted, and even then it was the last key I got, on account of overlooking the tiny switch that reveals it. Not a fan of having to crawl through all the mandatory nukage; there are radsuits enough for one, maybe two, passes, but if you don't figure out all the puzzles on the first try or so, you're going to lose a lot of health. Miss the yellow key the first time? Lose 20 health. Every pass through the red key area maze? Lose 20 health. The worst part was the doors that constantly lock behind you, forcing you into the muck in the first place. Even once I had all 3 keys, I had no idea what to even do with them! Eventually I discovered that I could parkour across the main hub area and access the red switch (whatever that ended up doing) but I still couldn't reach the door to the northern half of the map. Later I found out that I could do that without the parkour, by accessing the secret (?) pinkie lift. But then, to get to the northern door, I ended up having to parkour anyway. Gah. The 1-2-3-4 battle was mostly anticlimactic, since I could trigger all the baddies, then dash out and let them fight it out in their little box. On the plus side, the level looks really cool; another classic nuke base done up in all the gorgeous detailing one expects from a Russian map.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP24: Sturm

 

Castle map that plays out mostly as a monster infighting simulator once you've made your dash through the lava trench and snagged the red key; there isn't enough of the "good" ammo to really made a dent in the monster population, so you're mostly relying on Cyberdemons vs. sheer numbers to do the heavy lifting of bringing down the population while you concentrate on survival and focus your fire on priority targets like the occasional pain elemental that puts in an appearance.  Or you could I suppose ignore the monsters as far as is possible and just dash from switch to switch, opening up your way to the ramparts and sprinting for freedom with the frustrated masses of demonkind in your wake... but I think most players are going to try and grind the monster population down as best they can first.  The sheer size of the map and the number of Cyberdemons present, in combination with the layout of the castle itself and the player's freedom to bounce around via teleport, means that it's possible for monsters, even the Cyberdemons in their roles as walking tanks, to get hung up on a corner or in a hallway and then stumble out into the yard at an unexpected time and place; it's an exercise in situational awareness as much as anything else, and getting blindsided by an unexpected rocket from a Cyberdemon you thought was busy elsewhere is a very real possibility.  Head Like A Hole proves a fitting accompaniment for the slaughter but doesn't sit so well with the creepy atmosphere of the nearly-abandoned castle at the start of the map.

[Capellan]

MAP25

Sod that teleport nonsense for a game of soldiers. I no-clipped those doors without a sliver of a qualm. Outside of that, it's a pretty fun map. Some good set pieces and interesting visuals. Even the starting circuit, for all its linearity, isn't too bad. At least it's a more visually interesting place than that tunnel in map23, and it doesn't go on for 87 hours.

 

Unusual to see the wolf3d textures blended into a more traditional Doom map so successfully. Azamael definitely has a good sense of visual design.

 

The cyber is a sitting duck in continuous play, of course, and I had no compunction in killing him while he was helpless.

 

 

+++ Earth, Dawn of the Dead and Classic Episode

This probably won't win, but has the advantage of being exactly 28 maps (if we count secret maps) in a 28 day month :)

 

[SiFi270]

+++ The Lost Episode: Evil Unleashed, Visions of Eternity, and SIGIL

 

Fifth Episode February, guys! If SIGIL is unexpectedly delayed, we can replace it with Dawn of the Dead, since that also presents itself as a fifth episode but replaces the first. If it did come to that, it'd work great as a passive agressive "look what we were looking forward to" to Romero.

 

I can already see people wanting to nominate Eviternity again, but I think that deserves nothing less than a full 31 days for the club to enjoy it.

[Salt-Man Z]

+++NewDoom Community Project

One day I'll get this club to play NDCP. One day.

 

2 hours ago, Capellan said:

Earth, Dawn of the Dead and Classic Episode

This probably won't win, but has the advantage of being exactly 28 maps (if we count secret maps) in a 28 day month :)

I could get behind this. I need to replay Earth at some point, and Classic Ep is one of my all-time favorite episode replacements.

 

2 hours ago, SiFi270 said:

The Lost Episode: Evil Unleashed, Visions of Eternity, and SIGIL

Then again, LE:EU is also on my list of things to replay, and I'm totes there for SIGIL.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP25: Dunkelheit

 

More than anything this is a map that drives home to me its sense of scale; sure, A.L.T. has had large levels prior to this, but I think this is the best example so far of a map that really uses its open spaces, its looming architecture, and especially the heights to which the player ascends at various points.  Perhaps it's inevitable, then, that the map's weakest moments come when its scale contracts; there's a cluster of small rooms awaiting after the first teleporter, and another later in the map hosting a puzzle exercise, that feel rudimentary and atrophied compared to the grandiose ambitions of the rest of the map.  Overall I was felt feeling that the level didn't quite commit to presenting itself as a surreal commingling of different environments and experiences; the barren, ruin-choked wasteland at the western end of the map and the immense castle in the east are too well-realised and solidly depicted for that, and so the areas of the map that embrace other themes - the worm-passage and the bloody crater into which the player is vomited, the ziggurat, the high-tech lift and platform sequence immediately prior to the exit - feel kind of crammed in, the shrapnel of another level jutting from the fabric of this one in a painful way that emphasises how little they belong, presented alongside the Medieval-themed core of the map.

 

I missed the single "official" secret here but I do like the fact that there's a way to deal with an pair of Barons of Hell in their elevated perch that doesn't involve shooting them up; I wish I'd realised it existed sooner, I could have saved myself about half-a-dozen rockets that way, in a map that's not entirely liberal with its ammunition supply.

[T-Rex]

12 hours ago, Capellan said:

+++ Earth, Dawn of the Dead and Classic Episode

This probably won't win, but has the advantage of being exactly 28 maps (if we count secret maps) in a 28 day month :)

 

I'd like to play these maps as well, and makes sense as it's 28 maps altogether, so +++ for Earth, Dawn of the Dead and Classic Episode

[TheOrganGrinder]

+++ Strange Aeons, because a lot of the maps are quite short and it's not so tricky to try and do 45 maps in 28 days.

[Grain of Salt]

+++Dunk your head in a barrel of icy water

I think this would do you guys a lot of good.

[gaspe]

MAP25: The journey in the darkness realm keeps going in what seems to be a castle-like complex. Maybe is, or was, a citadel since you start near some ruins, where a cyberdemon is imprisoned and have to deal with it later. There are many cool vistas here, emphasized by the huge scale of the place. It's almost monochrome, textures of different shades of gray are used with the black sky but the few red walls and the torches stand out better in these visuals. There's a good use of the wolf3D textures, they blend well with environments and don't feel out of place like they usually do. Despite the big size of the outdoor the level is short with not so much to do in the large outside areas and there are a couple of visits in some rather cramped indoors. At the first after a long tunnel you discover that you just came out from a medieval IoS. At the RL on UV you can have a Gotcha duel between the bosses. Remarkable is the teleport puzzle that is also timed, cool stuff. For the real last encounter after you climb down the ziggurat there's a good pack of revs for you. The exit area has another cool view, with a path that progressively disappears in the darkness while far away you can see a bright red tunnel. As soon as you fall from the path the level ends but for continuous player there's a soulsphere if you walk on it until the end.

[Capellan]

MAP26

Here we traverse a bunch of almost Xmas-y liquid vistas, featuring a red key I'm not sure did anything (perhaps picking it up activated a W line?) and a bunch of progression based on "well, I guess I'll try this way?". I didn't see a lot of weapons, but then the monster count seemed pretty light too: lots of space but not necessarily more than a few harassers to be found in it.

 

End seemed to arrive quite abruptly, without much sense that the map had reached any sort of climactic confrontation. Just blatting a few demons and spectres in a tunnel.

 

 

[gaspe]

MAP26: After 2 adventures in the bleak realm of grey and black there's a welcomed change of setting. The whole place is made with red and green cascades, even the floors and ceilings are made of liquid. It's rather unique visually and there some cool views, like the unreachable fall at north with the hell knights. There isn't so much to be done here, which is a good thing since maps that relies on gimmicks can easily overstay their welcome. On a pistol start you have to work a bit to collect the weapons but for the actual difficulty the level is quite relaxed. There's a spiderdemon guarding a megasphere and you can trick it to kill some guys. This wad has many spiderdemons encounters, at least on 12 maps which is quite impressive I think usually it's an enemy used very sparingly. There's a sort of jail section where can seemingly get stuck in there. Before the exit there's a nice puzzle of figuring the path by following the candles. The ending is underwhelming and comes abruptly, you would think that the map builds up to something but all you got is a big tunnel with few pinkies and an area that suddenly has the aesthetics of the next map.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 20 -- 20.44

Is the reference to "virtual reality" plus the entrance booth some kind of sidelong allusion to Icarus, maybe?

 

This is something of a posterchild map for the WAD, probably the first one I think of when I think of ALT (with the possible exception of the concluding 28-30 stretch), and like the other Azamael maps in the second episode it seems a little older, a little more exploratory, and a fair bit less functionally polished than the maps from the early parts of E1 or the final parts of E3. In a way,  I think it's also a definitive 'vertical slice' of what the ALT experience at large is like, at least for me--a fascinating setting, slightly unusual tone and mood, and rather hapless action element, something which is quite enjoyable in the right state of mind but lacking the focus to be consistently gripping. A nice place to visit, yes, but somewhere I'd almost certainly go stir-crazy in short order if I had to live there.

 

Visually I think it's rather striking, combining the author's penchant for dramatically oversized spaces with an eclectic yet surprisingly coherent texture scheme, and a marked contrast between wet, curvy organic shapes and the hard angles of the base/observatory section. Many aesthetic and design choices are apropos of nothing, and all the more memorable for it--the way the upper level and its squashed and terraced terrain somehow feel like they're just a few feet below the roof of the world, the glowing fiery pillars, the Alternate start yard and its backdrop of stark black void, what is very clearly a corpse-chute cut into the side of the tumorous flesh island. In a narrative sense this is something of an intermezzo (or I'm failing to catch whatever it's trying to communicate), though the idea of a pumping station spewing ichor and offal into the sea for......reasons.....has a subtle payoff of sorts in m22.

 

Though the surroundings are strange, the gameplay is for the most part very straightforward. No clear goal is immediately evident, and there are a couple of optional diversions, but for the most part progress is easy to make just by wandering about. The action is conspicuously mild, even by the standards of this set--there's rather little roomclearing to be done, given the map's generally wide-open character, and monster population is sparse and never pressing, more like a light seasoning than anything. A number of enemy incursions are rather oddly timed and/or placed, as well, ala the packs of revenants which appear on the fringe of the fiery pillars at some point, well out of threat range/angle and after most players (save completionists) will have any real cause to spend much more time in that area. The overall impression is, let's say, 'noncommittally pleasant', which is fine, in doses.

 

A neat trick for killing the cyberdemon at the end: fire a pair of BFG blasts during the runup to the lift-actuation pad (BFG is an easy secret at the end of the knight/baron footpath), and sprint full tilt directly at him as though you were going to give him a big 'ol hug. If you time it correctly, he never wakes up because he's out of sound-propagation reach during the shots, and is decimated by two point-blank blasts just as you reach him.

 

Map 21 -- Fracture

Continuing the block of refinery maps after the somewhat ambiguously-themed m20, "Fracture" seems like a journeyman effort, an easier assertion to make in this particular case since I have had the pleasure of seeing later/more developed works by this author. Fastidiously detailed and tastefully textured, the map is nonetheless beholden to a very dry, constraining hallway/box layout for most of its duration before terminating in a large (if somewhat ineffectual) free-for all in an outdoor area, which hosts a large number of monsters who mostly squabble among themselves (note that there are supposed to be two spiderdemons out here, but one of them almost never teleports up from the bay below due to a botched one-use line setup).

 

Along the way there are appreciable attempts to mix things up and keep the level from being another shoot-n-loot, ala a surprisingly tricky timed door/switch run, an entertaining, layered megasphere secret, and a handful of traps, though given the nature of the geometry many of these latter are of limited impact. To its credit the level also takes pains to develop a certain sense of place (vs. for example the broadly similar m17 and m18, which were "just random maps"), though much of it was only apparent to me in hindsight--the 'command center' is actually the tower which overlooks the last bay, and the odd 'barrel-chutes' therein are perhaps meant to imply that you've done something to damage or inhibit whatever it is this corrupted facility is doing, a very standard Doom story beat (which in my interpretation is precisely the point).

 

Thinking on it, it occurs to me that for a 'stopgap' map this is decent, really (to again use that word), but appearing where it does in the running order, amidst larger, stranger, and entirely more dramatic maps probably does it no favors as regards the overall impression it makes.

 

Map 22 -- AcidJazz

AcidJazz? Acidjazz? Acid Jazz?

 

I would say that this is another of ALT's strongest maps, though I suppose I can see where it has certain qualities that might leave some players wanting to pull their hair out. Capping off the 'Refinery' arc with style, this is a believable and visually attractive (if understated) take on the nukage plant theme, with heavy industrial architecture, oppressive yet airy, transitioning to something in a surreal Deimos vein in the sealed-off pumping station to the north, where the heart of the infestation festers. The difference in the level of sophistication in craft as regards layout and room design here vs. most of the rest of the maps in this block is quite pronounced; rather than being a string of boxes to clear one by one, this is a much more complex and explorable space, where shaping of the player's movement is done through intriguing environmental design (visual foreshadowing, the constant presence of toxins flowing beneath the structure, etc.) rather than a prescribed/on-rails assembly. The richness and variety in structures--vats, walkways, overlooks, blind drops, lifts, nested chambers, etc.--naturally leads to more entertaining action as well, though the map probably does a fall off a bit on that front at the end, where its opposition is in much more static entrenchment.

 

As ever with ALT, of course, the most compelling aspect of proceedings isn't the combat per se but rather the experience of exploring and navigating the environment. Not terribly heavy-handed with the moodiness, the occasional jarring sight of demonic corruption (i.e. "flesh-lift", you know it when you see it) and a shift towards an eerily offbeat gothic tone in the northern area are very traditional (and enjoyable) Doom tropes; this is a map where the intrigue elides more from the actual level design than from the narrative mystery and show-but-not-tell quality of many other ALT maps. Folks speak of progression in this map as baffling/patently unclear, and for my part I simply can't agree--most of the facility follows a sort of internal logic, with more and more of the facility opening up as you find new areas and activate different processes (many of which are visually signposted far more explicitly than is the ALT norm), and almost every route leads to something useful, ala the basement megasphere sidequest, making exploration quite satisfying. Often reaching new areas requires a bit of jumping, climbing, dashing to timed lifts, that sort of thing, making proceedings feel lively and involved.

 

First time I played, as I recall the one sticking point for me (for some few minutes) was just how to reach the key-locked quadrant north of the starting/processing area of the level (which can be seen beforehand from elsewhere) in the first place; the answer is incredibly simple, one of those things that's so simple it can effectively hide in plain sight, perhaps, not even hidden or concealed but easy to simply overthink, which I find charming. In hindsight, the one aspect of design which I did find needlessly obtuse/disruptive from a progression standpoint was the pair of 'airlock' latches between the starting hub and the sampling chambers, which always seem to be closed when it would be convenient and open when you're nowhere near them, which almost strikes me as something as liable to be 'bug' as 'feature.'

 

At the level's conclusion, the protagonist destroys the eldritch abomination nested in the heart of the facility, putting a stop to.....whatever was going on. And yet, there's no closure, the nightmare doesn't end, and things become stranger and darker still. Apart from the convenient allusion to the narrative arc of Knee Deep in the Dead, this again leads one to wander what's really going, what is the real nature of the protagonist's struggle?

 

 

[dobu gabu maru]

throwing my dumb hat into the ring: +++ Hell Revealed 2