I ripped, I tore, I bought the t-shirt: Extended ramblings on Doom II (because why the hell not)

[Maximum Matt]

I told myself that I was done with Maximum Doom, but I found myself continuing to snuffle through the wads, and I realized that I had an addiction, or at the very least Max Doom Stockholm Syndrome.  So at the start of 2020 I decided to turn a page and download a bunch of epic megawads from Doom's heyday and dive into them, and begin to get back into the mindset of "this is an objectively good level", instead of merely "this is good by Max Doom standards".  

And after tasting the beginnings of Hell Revealed, Icarus, Requiem and Memento Mori II, I realized that my Doom perspective was totally warped and needed some sort of reset so, I decided to once again take a stroll through Doom The Second, and really take the time to appreciate what it offered and the standards it set back in goddamn '94.  I haven't been properly through it for at least five years, and figured that my view on Doom is a little unhealthy at the moment, so I started to write down all my thoughts on each level, from the stuff I liked as a kid, all the way to stuff I just noticed now, filtered through my brain post-Max Doom. I also for the first time learned which of the five map authors in this game did which levels, and compared and contrasted their various styles (what, Romero only did six levels?!?).

I've given my thoughts on episodes 2, 3 and 4 of Ultimate Doom elsewhere on this forum, so, in the spirit of I'm in lockdown, ain't much else to do lists are fun Civvie 11 is a living legend Doom II 25th anniversary having a bit of a laugh utter nostalgia, here are my extended thoughts about the greatest sequel since Return Of The Jedi The Dark Knight Robocop II. 

[And I originally planned to do this with Final Doom as well, but the thought of grinding through some of those levels again makes my right eye twitch uncontrollably for some reason.]
***** 

What can one say about THE most popular level in Doom II? Quite a bit, actually.  The first thing, for me, to say is that Entryway is THE most remade level in Maximum Doom other than Hangar.  Seriously, I have seen some very disrespectful violations of these levels, it's been stretched and mangled beyond recognition by all kinds of assholes with primitive level editors back in the day. It's also kinda weird to see that early version that was recently unearthed with that pointless-ass opening room before the classic triangle-staircase we all know and love. Whatever.  The first thing you see is as iconic as the blue carpet and missing pool table of Hangar and kind of looks like the entrance to a casino or something. (Come to think of it, that room behind the first door could be a 'games room' simulating poker machines or something.) Tons of secrets for a first level, too.  Thank you for the rocket launcher, Mr. Petersen.  Cool open vistas, funky architecture in the final room, an imp trap behind an unmarked door, nice. And what is WITH that weird-shaped 'tongue' step in the last room?

 

Underhalls (Sewer count: 1) has a special place in the heart of anyone who has extensively played Maximum Doom.  Seriously, when you get to the end of a shitty, frustrating Max Doom map and see the opening to this one, and realize you have completed the wad, there's rarely a better feeling.  (Go and watch Tarnsman's Max Doom Crapstraviganza vids on Twitch; when he finally finishes a map01 and starts in something other than Underhalls, his dejected sighs are soul-crushing.) Nice and atmospheric, neat and compact design, monster closets are on point, dropping down into those cramped rooms in the south-west with the barrels is still thrilling, get that goddamn shotgunner out of the wall so he can move, and it blew my mind when I first witnessed someone glide through that gap which I simply assumed was too narrow to fit through.  And of course, we have to talk about the one thing that makes this level so important, and I think you all know what it is: that's right, the running jump that you have to make into that outside brick building to progress the level.  Yep, Doom II ain't messing around, precision running jumps are now mandatory for level progression, not just for secrets or side areas, and this is your first taste of it.  ^{Oh yeah and the SSG}

 

I never liked The Gorntlet.  Yeah it's got good architecture and nice water features, but is kinda bland overall (like its' theme song). Third level in a row where you start off with enemies facing away from you (and a pet peeve of mine is they really should've made some idling animations for the enemies, their poxy 'two-step' they do has and will always look stupid to me).  Introduces the goddamn ChainGunner, a bite-sized spider mastermind that is the last word on the importance of prioritizing hitscanners in large fights and is a complete bastard in groups.  But apart from that, meh.  If nothing else, it's a showcase for Mr. McGee's proclivity for utilitarian, earthy designs. [EDIT: and I just found out about the backpack non-secret - first backpack of the game!]

 

I remember liking The Focus back in the day, but replaying it I can't really see why.  I mean, apart from the chaos of the opening gunner slaught (with that cool 'foxhole' room with the raising and lowering shield) and that hallway with the 'light switches' (very cool), there really isn't much going for it.  I mean, you start pointed at a diagonal to the map grid, so there's that, you got a crate room that's way too small to be a respectable 'crate room', and the final room with the teleporters just seems like a waste of time.  I dunno, it just doesn't do it for me nowadays.  And what the hell is a 'focus', anyway? [EDIT: I just found out that map 22 The Catacombs was originally in this mapslot, and was most likely named "focus" for its' central area, where most of the action is.]

 

For my money, The Waste Tunnels (sewer count: 2) is where Doom II really gets cracking. I'd forgotten how cool and hard this bastard is.  Drop-down lift imp traps near the start - on point.  That little courtyard with gunners sniping you through the windows and those balconies - very nice.  The sewer-y area with the windows that gunners snipe you from is hardcore.  I never really 'got' the dark area with those 'booths' of imps with the arrows in them.  A specter trap that springs behind you when you go down a narrow corridor and are taking care of other enemies? Very evil.  Got the ol' torch as a secret switch thing that American likes to do.  Also introduces, in grand fashion, the Hell Knight, the laziest design of a new enemy.  Thumbs up. 

 

The Crusher, even though quite boxy, is another instant classic, with epic lighting, the introduction to the Revenant (and how many players jumped in their seat the first time they heard its' scream?) and the descent into the eponymous crusher room, which I'll also consider a sewer because of that nukage trench.  What else - very cool-looking secret area with bars, enemies, a ton of barrels and a megasphere, that I didn't know about when I was a kid.  The rather striking-looking outside areas with the stone structures, lava and hell knights. The final teleporter-confusion slaught (that very thoughtfully has an exit corridor that connects up with the start of the level, for deathmatchin' purposes) kicks the ass. Another American-made classic.  And you bet your ass I deliberately crashed the game by pressing on that one wall (you know the one), it's kind of a tradition for me at this point.  

 

Dead Simple.  Square level. Introduces two new enemies.  Has two special tags assigned to them.  For some reason created by two map authors (?!?!!!?!?).

 

And then we arrive at the first truly crack-infused Sandy map, Tricks And Traps.  An archetypal hub map, the 'traps' basically consist of suddenly surrounding the player, but is filled with unforgettable encounters, which clockwise from the yellow door (and don'cha love pedantic over-analysis??) include - imp/baron trap, caco trap (love those 'nests' they're in), two bigass pinky hordes (and my OCD is triggered by that one stair that is textured differently), what I would call 'the crap zone' (because I really don't like teleporting directly in front of specters, and also introduction to the Pain Elementals), bigass imp trap, the beyond-iconic hellroom where you can see a cyberdemon get ripped to shreds by a horde of barons (sooooooo satisfying to watch), baron trap, and of course the good ol' run-across-the-sinking-platforms-Indy-Jones-style exit room dash.  There are examples of these types of traps created before this level on Maximum Doom (most notably the classic/appalling AMBUSH.wad, which I believe did the whole barons vs. cyberdemon thing before the release of D2) and it's great that this particular way of sadistic thinking was out there from the get-go.  I guess the only thing truly missing from this one are crusher traps.  But yeah, in terms of Doom's 'storyline', this one would be hard to reconcile (I mean, what the hell type of structure is this??!?) and I occasionally feel that this would've been better suited as a secret level (more on THAT later).  But yeah, a classic. 

 

The Pit is the shit. Again, VERY bizarre architecture, kind of a hub, a combo of orthogonal, right angled rooms and big weird blobby-shaped places, stuffed with baddies, have always been fascinated by that outside area with the hexagonal structure in the nukage pit - the manc's fireballs somehow trigger the platform ring to lower, adding to the chaos and infighting.  (And this whole structure is a triple-secret, for some reason.) Ol' Sandy's got a thing for big drop-down platforms in this one, with the 'lowering staircase' room to the north being the weirdest and most annoying.  You got that chaingunner firing squad in the metal room (again with secret sectors for some reason) that can be quite the inconvenience if you ain't ready for it.  Nice usage of height variation.  The classic oversight - the pain elementals on Ultra-Violence are completely harmless due to there being too many lost souls already in the level - only the second level that features them, and already demonstrating that not only are they infuriatingly annoying, they're also buggy.  Nice.  What else?  Lots of monster closets, the final room with the star motif is quite striking, yeah nice.  

 

Refueling Base is where shit gets real.  An unused OG Doom map originally designed by the wizard Tom Hall and corrupted by Mr. Petersen, this is packed with baddies to almost slaught proportions (just about every variety of enemy too) and is honestly quite dickish in parts.  Like that room with the 'fuel tanks' that open up one by one when you trigger the tripwires for them on the OPPOSITE sides of the room and unleash some Pain Elementals, among others.  Very evil.  Or the techbase-y joint with way too many gunners.  Or that dark room with the aracnotrons.  Or the final rooms with a goddamn cyberdemon teleporting around in it.  Good luck if you didn't find the secret back entrance to THAT one.  Non-linear, you can handle it in a number of ways, and screw pistol-starting this one.  Has the cool Tom Hall-isms like tons of secrets, kinda blocky E2M3-style rooms, certain parts of rooms that you just walk over to tag secrets/open monster closets (including that weird megasphere secret where all three steps of the pedestal it's on being separate secrets for some reason), cool interplay of light/shadow etc, non-secret areas, yeah this one's monstrous.  And I can't forget to mention the door to the exit room locking behind you for whatever reason, so y'know.  

 

In Circle Of Destruction, the hammer comes crushing, a true powerhouse of energy.  This is John Romero's first throwdown of the game, and he ain't fuckin around, as you're hit with a 'hot start' surrounded by imps, cacos and goddamn chaingunners.  Introduces the Archvile, an enemy so asshole-ish it even messes with your end-of-level kill percentage.  Romero certainly likes barred windows, and giving oppertunities to take out enemies at a distance before you get to those rooms is always appreciated.  Cool secret sequences, having the nukage all around keeps you on your toes, a set of bars that alternately rise and lower like teeth as you approach (coooool), the final dark-assed 'castle' area feels much bigger than it actually is, and has the coolest exit switch in the game.  Too bad he got a few specters stuck together in that one part.  

 

Now we get to the 'town' sequence of levels (beginning the slightly-inconsistent-episode-lengths trend that would continue in Quake) and Fear Factory, while having a very cool non-linear huge outside area (which is quite fun dodging the aracnotron's plasma at long distance), does unfortunately suffer from suck, namely inside the main building with all the fatass mancubi - like that room with all the blocks and the disco lighting and the 'secret' sector that opens up the door again - the hell is that?? You got the room that lowers down into a shotgunner ambush, a goddamn ripoff of the E2M2 rising blocks out of the nukage thing (which I like to get out of order so the nukage stays on the platforms), that weird dark jagged 'secret' room with a BFG inside, some dumb corner with a bunch of lost souls, nah screw this noise.  On the plus side, you've got that red brick building with a ton of imps to slaught yer way through, and a decent enough crate room, which I always respect (always room for a crate room in a level I say).  Unfotunately the teleporter in that room takes you right in the middle of an imp sandwich, which I feel is some serious bullshit, even if the reward is a secret and a soul sphere.  [D'oh!! I just found out about that switch in the shotgunner room!!] And of course the final room is annoying with a whole square of caco turrets and a troll door (need a red key to get out but there ain't one in the level.  Thanks Sandman).  Next...

 

Some people don't like Downtown, but they're idiots.  It's a goddamn town, people, and a brutal one right from the get-go, with aracnos, revenants and cacos immediately getting you sprinting, and the ton of imps sniping you from above causing more confusion.  Grab one of the many invisibility spheres if you like your strafing extra spicy.  Survive that, and you got yourself quite the place to explore - I love the darkness and the imposing size of the buildings, as well as the 'back alleys' to the north of the map. (And apparently this was going to be a 'dock' area with an ocean, but was changed due to size constraints.) Got a couple of crate rooms, a crusher structure, a teleporter trap that looks like it was lifted from E2M4, a goddamn slow lift that looks like the same model as the ones from E1M5, helpful big arrow to show you how to get the joint started, yeah cool.  

 

The Innmost Dens is Mr. McGee's opus, as evidenced by the number of tributes to it - the one in Memento Mori, the one in Plutonia, there's probably one in TNT too.  Heck, even Doom I has an Innmost Dens tribute if I remember correctly.  Bunch of earthy stone buildings surrounded by cool blue water, curved staircases fuck yeah, that weird secret area just behind your starting point which seems to be some kind of DM crusher trap (which also messes with the door completely opening and can cause the HOM effect, yeah I did hang out in here for quite a while), gunner turrets everywhere, auto-opening gates to surprise you, very cool.  I dare say it even has a bit of a Quake feel to it.  This is basically a fort divided into four sections, there's a bit of gap-jumping goodness in there, love how the chaingunner platforms are all slightly differently-shaped, love the arches in some of those windows and doorways, and of course, the final room anticipated Minecraft seventeen years before it was made.  Classic.  

 

Industrial Zone (or as the French say, La Zone Industrielle) is a goddamn epic of Romeronicity.  There's a lot going on in this one, so I'll try to be brief.  First of all, this is the level where you'll most likely die to a trooper, as the first part is clearing out the the area of hitscanners.  This is probably also where many found out that autoaim has a limit, and you'll just have to stay out of sight of the assholes in the top of the southwestern castle.  Seriously, I used to just run around this joint for ages, mowing down the grunts and seeing how far I could last.  You got the giant northern lake, which I'm sure Sandy coveted, which could've used a swarm of cacos of a cyberdemon or something (j/k).  You got the 'collapsing building' that undoubtedly inspired Duke 3D to do the same (citation needed).  Once you've had enough fun blasting zombies and actually get into the meat of the level, there's a bit of ledge-jumping for progression that would've certainly annoyed the hell outta newbies back in the day, not to mention the old 'landing teleporter doesn't take you back, it goes to a third place for progression' trick.  Ah well, at least it's a decent looking crate room.  The dark brick building with the red key door and all the imps has a very neat 'hellish' secret area; could one say that this is the hellish realm transforming the buildings from south to north?? Whatever, we now have access to the multi-story structure in the middle, with more gunners ringing the perimeter, some opportunities to take out more enemies to the south of the lava canyon, and of course, the baron/caco/PE sandwich inside, with the BFG as bait.  Thankyou, Sir Romero.  Now we gotta talk about the sequence to access the secret level which, like Toxin Refinery and Perfect Hatred, is quite intricate and inspired - making that jump onto that small-assed platform, to press the button that opens up the secret area to the east of the pit, which in turn opens the secret exit later in the level AND provides an invuln sphere for the aforementioned sandwich room.  Nice.  These secrets are telegraphed both in the fact that you have to make a jump from the main building to the southern section to progress, and by how the only teleporter out of the pit takes you straight to the center of that room.  And I love how you can juuuuust see the the secret door open in the distance when you hit that switch on the platform.  It's just kind of a shame (in my opinion) that the secret exit can be accessed soon after this; if it were up to me (!!!!!TRIGGER WARNING!!!!! ), I'd only have the secret exit accessible only at the end of the level (for example a linedef after the blue key door), but that's just me.  Also the concept of the secret level being accessed on the fifteenth level of a megawad starts here.  I mean sure, it's hardcoded into the mapslot, but y'know, it's not THAT secret when you know what level you gotta look for it is.  Whatever.  So now you've got the cool-ass evil green castle action with more lava walking, love the splattered corpses behind the bars and the torches for decoration, bit of close up fightige, gotta love a stair riser, coupla things about this next bit - a rare Romero error (Romerror?); secret which doesn't tag, and I don't like that blind jump down into a hell knight's grill - I suppose the man's mapping powers were flickering slightly at this point.  But then it's back to the cool, as you're finally at the top of the castle, and I would like to note at this point the vista here is stunning, the sheer scale and architecture on display looking over this small city, you can even see all the way back to the start room, just a tribute to Romero's vision as a mapper and to the power of the engine, and how simply massive this place truly is.  Got an on-point press-the-button-and-run-to-a-briefly-revealed-secret thing, another button that lights up a beyond-on-point goddamn arrow on the ground pointing to an otherwise hidden key (now that's fucking cool), and I only just found out that the lava button platform can be more safely accessed via a running jump from up here, clueing you in with two torches on the ground floor (although of course this would be after you've cleared out the central building, so the invuln wouldn't necessarily as useful at this point).  Then we got his signature usage of metal fencing and key bars, then we're at the bloody-ass door to the final building, the one that for ages convinced me that this was proof that the Doom engine COULD do room-over-room stuff, with that crossroad-lift thing with a ton of secrets packed into it (seriously this room is a mini level unto itself).  Pillars, torches, that wood-and-rusty-metal texture, windows to snipe baddies, secrets upon secrets, a non-secret, more metal fencing, those goddamn blue flags around the blue door, yeah there's a lot going on here.  And then you've got the final confusion zone, trying to take out the baron, hell knight and a ton of imps through yet more metal fencing, yeah Romero likes a bit of metal fencing.  And last but not least, I can't remember/don't care if the texturing of the secret exit has been used before this level, but it's always been very striking to me and is perfect for such a room.  I call it the lasagna texture.  But other than that, this level sucks. 

 

And now we gotta talk about the goddamn secret levels.  Get psyched.  First of all, I can proudly say that I had played the ever-loving shit of the first episode of Wolfenstein 3D before Doom had come out, coz I'm all oldschool like that.  So it is very welcoming in a way, starting up this level.  However, I don't think simply dedicating two whole levels (albeit secret) to a Wolf3d tribute really sits right with me - with all these wild, original levels with exotic locales and stuff, the secret levels are ol' fashioned orthogonal boxyness.  Apparently the wall textures are from the Amiga version and they didn't bother to resize them, which is why the rooms seem way bigger than the original - and I don't know whether this was intentional, but I think it kinda plays into the dream-like aspect of this, like Doomguy has regressed to his great-grandfather's (??) life, back when he was captured by the Nazis and is re-living his escape.  (And I guess it can tie in with the whole occult thing that happens in later episodes of Wolf3d - you know, trying to tap the NetherRealm to rule the world etc.) At least, that's how I reconcile these levels in the 'story' of D2.  This also is where we meet the SS guards, and instead of being the big-ass killing machines of Wolf3d, these guys are miniature, far less effective chaingunners.  Obviously their smallness and cannon-fodderryness was intentional, as they are invariably in squads of four throughout this level and designed to be mown the hell down easily.  I love how they didn't even bother to animate firing frames from an angle other than the front (so they can appear to be still firing at you when they are infighting with each other), however they did incorporate gibbing animations, so you can see where Id's priorities were at.  So yeah, it's the first level of Wolfenstein, the scale is all messed up but the layout is identical, they nearly had horizontally moving doors installed apparently, there's demons in place of the german shepards, the armor bonuses are stacked in groups of four for some reason (I guess to give a bigger 'flash' when you pick them up, for nostalgic reasons - god I loved how each treasure piece in the old game had their own big chunky midi pick-up sound), incongruous decorations like the flaming barrels and impaled corpses, there's a couple of goddamn demons stuck together (like in E2M6 and E3M6, ain't they doin some playtesting??), there's that scarily non-Wolfenstein secret room with the weird decorations and shaped like that room in Tricks And Traps (why?? Is there some sort of connection??? Why does Sandy do this?? Like in that room in Unholy Cathedral that is shaped like the first room in Fortress of Mystery, why??). Yeah, all the same secrets are there (some tagged, some not), including to the secret level (in this case the super-duper secret level) I always loved that blue stone prison texture, yeah a pure nostalgia fest.  

 

Ain't got much to say about Grosse.  Yeah, the final level of episode 1 of Wolf, it's that classic boss arena, clear out the SS guys, stock up on all the secrets and fight the second cyberdemon of the campaign (and wouldn't it be wild if they'd included a Doom II version of Hans Grosse, a duel-wielding chaingunner). Has secrets that weren't in the original, and a secret from the original removed from this one, yeah.  Has a very strange ending, which I won't spoil, I'll just say it involves shooting at four hung Commander Keen bodies to make them disintegrate so you can finish the level (a reference to the paradox of going back in time and killing your own ancestors).  Of course.  Also the very first instance of a 'sky-floor' exit (it's like there's a glass floor here). Replaying both of these, I'd totally forgotten how cool the music to these are (again, they put in a lot of effort into what are essentially self-congratulatory easter eggs). So yeah

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled game, with Suburbs, a classic based on Sandy's hometown ^{[citation needed]}, which of course goes a long way in explaining his inner psyche.  This would be a seriously rough neighborhood to grow up in, what with a garage full of teleporting imps, revenants and mancubi on platforms to snipe you from afar, and of course, the biggest teleporter trap in the game.  This is where the beauty of infighting comes into its own, and separated the boys from the men in terms of the processing power of the computers of the day.  Love again how the orthogonal designs of the buildings and walls contrast with the weird blobby-shaped 'caves' and those three pillars in the south (for cover, thankyou Mr. Petersen).  Purely aesthetic design alert - the scary red brick building has doors that open to the 'little skulls' wall texture, as if the entire building is packed chock-full of human remains.  Nice.  Not so nice, of course, is the secret entrance that requires you to shoot blindly inside to kill the cacos guarding it.  I don't like false walls (More. On. That. Later). What else - got some cool shootable switches, got that big staircase into the red key building with that Episode 1-ass texture, the two identical manc platforms, a FIREBLU non-secret, and of course the ending structure with all the imps and the red pillar that you can just glide past if you're badass enough.  That curvy wall nearby reminds me of Mt. Erebus as well, for some reason.  Yeah, a nice slaughtfest.  

 

Romero deep-cut Temenemts is my least favorite of his contributions to D2, even though it still clearly kicks some serious ass.  OR DOES IT??? It certainly has the hallmarks of his style - the symmetricity and interconnectedness of the structures, the central room around which the action unfolds, lots of metal bars, key pillars, a goddamn openable window into another room to snipe off baddies before you get to 'em like in E1M3, a thirty-second door trap like in E1M6, you get the idea.  But this one has an element of grind to it in my opinion, nothing that outstanding.  I mean, the aforementioned trap room with the rocky catwalk thing and the ambush is quite cool (and I like those semi-hidden teleporters in the blood), and that watery cavern (sewer?) part out the back of the western building is kinda cool (and how this and the other secrets connect up with different parts of the level), and fuck yea small item platform widda scrolling texture ala E1M1, but nah, doesn't really do it for me, there's way too many buttons to press, you got a bunch of specters stuck together (again), got the worst-placed aracnotron evaaar, and the less said about that final room linedef crap, the better. 

 

Oh yeah, the Slaughtyard.  Not much to say about this one, except invuln-fuelled CARNAGE.  Got the ol' starting-room-with-the-locked-exit-door thing, and working out that you have to SHOOT the lion-faced door to exit must've infuriated many a player back in the day.  Also, shooting or pointing your chainsaw through that doorway is more fun than it should be.  Wrapping the scary green face texture around an octagonal pillar - on point.  Love how the various monster closets are triggered by linedefs on the opposite sides of the arena, nice (and of course, the doortracks in one of these closets feature the most famous missing textures/HOM in Doomdom).  Then once your done with the fun, you've got a bunch of Sandy traps around the periphery, a teleporter trap, a kinda crappy maze section, breifly teleporting to a small room that doesn't seem to have anything in common to the rest of the joint just to pick up a key and return to where you've been (like in Chasm), and of course, the exit room looks like a goddamn toilet.  So this counts as a sewer.  

 

Just as Suburbs was based on the neighborhood Sandy grew up in, The Shitadel is based on the palace he bought with the money he made from the first Doom ^{[citation needed]}.  The archetypal castle map complete with moat and bridge, the structure is fascinating - the opening 'pillbox' you emerge from creates a perspective glitch when you go around behind it, don't know how he missed that one... you can circle pretty much the entire structure before properly tackling the map - go out the back for a nice little specter slaught (I like the 'fuzzy carpet' effect this makes:-) - there's quite a bit of 'dead space' around the boundaries of the map, just to convey the hugeness - heaps of imp cages - you can break the level by simply shimmying past one of those barrier torches to get to the north-western building - and of course, my OCD simply LOVES the fact that the four corner towers of the main building are all differently-shaped.  Unfortunately, you have to go inside it, and the shit's too convoluted for me to bother detailing.  I mean you got that central arena, that room where you gotta do a blind jump down into a bunch of demons, that room with the weird shaped steps like in Entryway, a bunch of mandatory secrets (like, all three keys are secrets wtf), including a goddamn secret door for progression, wherein you also gotta know to do a running jump to where you have to go.  Nuh-uh.  I kinda like that teleporter hub in this area, though - it's intuitive, takes you to the four corner towers or the center, a bit of neatness in this weirdo progression.  Plus the fact that you don't need all three keys to exit, thumbs up. Next...

 

GOTCHA!!!!!!, like all the other maps, was named by Sandy Petersen, because of course.  This is the spiritual sequel to Mt. Erebus, only bigger, taller and more Pain Elemental-y.  Known for posing the question "what if a cybie fought a spider mastermind?" (a question already answered hundreds of times in amateur PWADs by the time of D2's release), GOTCHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!?!! however doesn't offer up much more than that in my opinion.  It certainly rewards venturing into the blood sea, as there are secret and semi-secret areas accessed only through this method.  Quite a few teleporters, got that sweet running-jump from a staricase ramp thing into a dark-ass cave room, got that signature Romero secret thing of showing an area BEHIND a teleporter encouraging you to hump nearby walls (like in E4M2 and, er, probably another one), only this time there's a surprise archie up in there.  This room also has this real bizzarre and obscure non-secret that is accessed by shooting the side of that evil teleporter structure thing half a mile away (but you might accidentally hit it anyway shooting at the flying enemies).  Weird.  Got quite a few linedef-triggered actions, and is honestly a bit buggy - you get that 'platform stop' sound when you walk over certain lowered/raised structures; a couple of times I ran right over that teleporter in the aforementioned dark cave room and it didn't work; once when I teleported from there to that other structure it didn't lower and I was goddamn stuck; and don't even get me started about floor crushers glitching and trapping you.  Also if you pistol-start it can be hard to hit the shotgunner right in front of you (is that a blockmap thing?). So yeah, not a big fan of GOT-CHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!#!!!!!! really. The end room looks cool though.  

 

Is Nirvana the worst level in Doom II?  Well yes, but does that necessarily mean it's a bad map? Well, actually, yes, but.... I don't know where else to go with this sentence.  I can remember liking it back in the day, as it's certainly kind of slaughty, what with the ton of baddies in that slime cave-ass room and way too many medikits at the start.  But yeah, it is kinda crappy, basically six rooms interconnected by a confusing load of teleporters and not really making much sense thematically.   So yeah you load up on guns and shoot the imps in the back (another goddamn level that starts this way), then go to that stony area where you get your ass kicked by a bunch of shotgunners, specters and revenants, and then when you're done, you press the button.... to lower that wall.  Okaaaaaaay.  This level is a bit of a bitch on a pistol start by the way.  Then you go into that crap room with the buttons to raise that weird triangle lift thing (kinda reminds me of the start of Entryway as well) which is buggy and has some weird graphical glitch on the ceiling going on.  Then you got a boring square-assed room where you get your circlestrafe on, then you're back in the start room and I gotta say the 'windows' texture in this room annoys me for some reason.  It's like it's trying to be some kind of realistic structure or something but isn't quite sure what.  I dunno, I just don't like this joint.  Then you go to the big slaught room and it's kinda fun to knock the enemies off those pillar things, and I mean it's futile to criticize a game like this for its lack of realism but the fact that these pillars are lowerable like lifts also gets on my nerves a bit.  Kinda like those big platforms in The Pit, but making even less sense (yeah I know, I'm not making much sense either).  Oh yeah, and you don't even need the blue key.  And the last room is another square with more of those goddamn windows and a 'drop into the sky' exit.  So yeah, Sandy kind of phoned it in on this one.  

 

We're back into the tasty shit with The Catacombs, the second-coolest McGee level and certainly the coolest-looking one from him.  Seriously, the opening room alone makes this an all-timer.  I always loved that grey stone wall texture decorated by a thin band of green skulls.  You got an elevator with the same brand of bars as the one in The Crusher (and you feel for the pinky trapped inside it); you got the decorative torches with the chaingunners behind that you can easily get to infight (and this is the best 'shooting-through-the-gaps' fight since Tower Of Babel); you got the classic McGee torch secret.  Here this gives you the choice of getting the plasma gun, but then be teleported into the madness, or go without and take the elevator for a slightly less intense fight (or, of course, you can have it both ways if you're quick enough).  You got a SECOND secret in this same room with frickin' CEILING DECORATIONS!!!  Very classy.  Then of course you go out and get stomped by revenants, chaingunners, specters and a slime lake.  Pretty hard to get a foothold, but hey, this is how American rolls when he wants to throw some stuff at you.  This level is a central hub (or a "focus"...) with the action in the rooms around it, and again, beautiful.  Green marble drop-down lifts with scary faces, decorative ceiling beams that cast shadow (exquisite), barred windows, rusty metal trim, and a rocky central pattern WITH A GODDAMN COMPASS ARROW!!!! This is class, man.  You fight your way through the stony corridor to behold a group of imps facing away from you, staring at a splattered corpse on a wall (...maybe they've just finished eating it?  Cool bit of visual storytelling), but they get alerted as you approach (via the rarely-used enemy mechanic where they can 'see' in 360 degrees.... right??). Then you drop down into a compact little zone with some thick ol' bars, a bit of FIREBLU (fuck yeah), a chaingunner trap and an up-close and personal baron fight.  And then you've got the infamous two blind chaingunners behind the red door.  I've got a feeling that this was intentional for some reason, as Mr. McGee couldn't have let something like this occur by mistake - I mean, the aforementioned imps get alerted to you approaching them even when their backs are turned to you... so maybe this was included as cheap laugh, perhaps?  A nod to the engine limits, past mistakes and imperfections of the first Doom?  Ahh, I dunno.  Then there's the final room with a faint echo of Innmost Dens to its' structure, then finish.  

 

Barrels 'O' Fun is scientifically proven to be The Shit.  The logical culmination of the concept of the 'barrel-explosion-chain-reaction' that was pioneered back in E1M4, this may be considered a bit of a 'gimmick' map, but goddamn I loved this one.  You start by having to outrun a ton of manc-ignighted barrels like you're in a Bruce Willis movie or something, and I swear the thrill I get trying to dodge through all of them and get that damn door to open to jump in to safety is on par with running away from a cyberdemon to cover without getting a rocket up the ass.  Simple but effective.  Then you can take the teleporter, and I gotta say the shape of this room intrigues me - like it was originally septagonal-shaped (like the end of the next room), but ol' Sandy thought it was a waste of space, and cut off a bit of the eastern side.  For some reason.  Yay for economy, I guess.  Anyway, you can progress or go back to the main hall for some ammo (and doesn't it always suck when the mancubus survived??) where a wall has stealthily opened up (you can't hear it because it's so long, and the sound source comes from the center of it, thanks Doomwiki), and you can snipe off those strategically-placed barrels to take out more assholes.  Love the how the baddies are silhouetted against the light behind them here.  Be sure to take out those damn Pain Elementals too.  Then you gots the next room, another run-and-dive before the chaingunners ruin your day, THIS room is shaped like a key, I keenly notice.  Then of course the next room, the one which sends any pistol-start run of mine to a screeching halt, teleporting you with your back to a goddamn Pain Elemental, with like five others in the room, and a bunch more barrels.  Thanks, Mr. Petersen.  Survive that, shoot the wall open (and I usually do without knowing anyway during this scrap), raise up that triangular lift thing (and what is it with Sandy and triangular structures??), jump across and fight too many demons in this 'stair-casey' hall.  (Seriously, I always forget how many of these bastards are here and wind up in the back corner berzerk-punching most of them.)  And the wall closing for thirty seconds so there's no escape, fuck yea.  Then you go outside to the evil blood pool room with an archie turret and floating upper teleporter squares that nicely and conveniently put you on the areas they are right next to, then there's the big fight with the spider mastermind and aracnotrons where you can quite easily get them infighting, which is a bit disturbing if you think about it for a bit... Moving on, you get the key in this arena, and I'm a bit fascinated by the linedefs in this area - go towards the dark passageways, the opening to the previous area closes, with the unpegged texture makin' it look like a damn brick curtain is falling.  Step into the 'imp cave' and the spiders are unleashed, step into the spider's lair, and that brick wall will raise again, and higher than it was before.  Which of course, creates a bit of a perspective glitch, as you realize the top of the wall is lower on this side than it is on the other side, and that you should by all rights be able to see that floating platform above the wall when you back right up.  I think I may be going a bit too far with my analysis right now, so I'll wrap up, yeah go to that nice curvy room that is seemingly designed for the revenant rockets to follow you so you don't get cover, except for that big pillar, thankyou Mr. Petersen, you got that weird little eye platform with the BFG on it, a unique demon-aracno combo, then teleport to the final hallway for yet another outrun-the-barrel-death set piece which quite honestly feels a bit played out by the third time.  Another 'jump-into-the-sky' exit and you're done.  Oh, and the Alice In Chains rip-off music (thankyou Mr. Prince) is so iconic, it was reused in the map 23 slot of both episodes of Final Doom.  

 

The goddamn Chasm.  Look, it's iconic, it's huge, it looks great.  I love its' initial imposing nature, how you have several options as to what to do from the start.  I love those little colored skull blocks next to the key doors, indicating what key is needed (a Sandy signature that gets repeated in maps 27 and 28).  I even appreciate that there's several non-mandatory areas.  But I gotta agree with the general consensus, the ledge-walking elements to this level are NOT cool.  I get it, it's supposed to be a unique challenge, but it slows shit down to a halt and adding fuckin' lost souls is a dick move, seriously.  I suppose there's enough teleporters down in the slime for it to be kinda fair, but it's no fun to be inching along a bunch of goddamn paper-thin catwalk things.  (And I thought I could be charitable and say that at least they kinda look like a building under construction or something, but no, that weird circular structure with the caco trap that looks like it was hand-drawn into the map with a crayon kills that idea.)  I much prefer jumping across the red pillars on the eastern part of the map (where most of the teleporters in this area take you to), that just seems more fun to me - at least they're big enough for novice players.  What else - you got that weird slimewall building with the blue key, with slime seemingly coming out of the ceiling and into the floor, I remember ol' Big Mac Davis ranting about how stupid that looks - the beta version of the level has techwalls instead and looks a lot cooler in my opinion.  You got that tech-y secret area with too many chaingunners; you got that stupid thing with the invuln sphere and having to press on the walls of the lavapit to get out before the powerup runs out - what a waste of time that is; there's that real weird and totally out-of-context blue disco room with the water ceiling and the ton of demons and buttons where you get the red key and feels like it's from a totally different level; and you gots that final area that puts you on a catwalk surrounded by lost souls.  Not cool.  Plus the fact that when you get over the final catwalks to the exit door, you turn around and the floor raises up out of the slime, in what BMD described as "a big middle finger" to the player.  Damn right.  

 

It's not easy being Shawn Green, as Bloodfalls is one of only three levels he contributed to O.G. Doom, and this one feels kinda like a TNT map, to me.  I mean, not necessarily because it sucks, it's just got that kind of flavor.  No wonder why he's got the shotgun.  Not too much to say about this one; of course, my main statement is that bloodfalls/waterfalls are the ONLY realistic usage of 'false walls' in Doom.  MORE. ON. THAT. FUCKIN'. LATER.  So yeah, nice and dark, love the drops of blood in the starting room where you can barely see them, that courtyard with the revenant on that blood platform (which lowers for no reason) is a bit of a firing squad, what with all the gunners above you, makes you realize maybe you should've tried that other route at the beginning.  I like how you can jump OVER the teleporters when you jump down into these areas, but I don't like the mandatory damaging floors here.  Like the exploded body decorations behind mesh on the walls, as well as the auto-opening door with the black drapery on it, classy.  Blue key room is quite the challenge, but of course suffers from not taking into account the ol' infinite height properties of the enemies, so it becomes a pain to jump down off the key ledge or to perform the epic leap to the Megasphere.  I like how if you've taken this path first, when you teleport back to the starting room you've got a couple of gunners in the room with you too.  Also like the torches in that twist-y cave section, very nice.  Then behind the blue door is a small slaughter (strobe light on the doorframe FUCK YEAH), and what I consider a very clever trap: the small staircase down to a lift, with some gunners on top, you take them out, go down to the lift, lower it, get on, wait for it to rise, then BAM!! you've got a hell knight in the face.  Always gets me.  Then of course you've got the secret room where you get big fat NOTHING in UV-difficulty (thanks, dude), some nice marble architecture, and of course, the goddamn water-cube.  Yeah, a bit meh for me, but what would I know. 

 

For Mines that are supposed to be Abandoned, it's pretty fuckin crowded if you ask me.  Another highly influential level, as evidenced by two 'tribute' maps in Plutonia (Caged and Twilight), the main idea of a network of fenced-off corridors through which enemies can snipe at you from all directions is ingenious (or just 'genius') - restricting the player to a linear path, but still requiring him/her be aware of not just the front and behind.  This joint encourages exploration and has the good ol' Romero style interconnected secrets and side areas his levels are known for - you got that escape teleporter in the slime pit of the red key room that takes you to that elevator-y semi-secret area, which in turn has another teleporter to the bright outdoor part, you got that huge secret area right behind the start point that I didn't even know about when I was a kid, with even more teleporter shenanigans.  Couple of hidden doors in the main intersection, to give greater acess to the various areas.  Love the giant lava room with the curvy path and the cacos, THAT'S how you do catwalks.  Quite a few hanging leg decorations in this level too.  There's also some weird stuff like redundant switches (like in the aforementioned red key room, and that switch later on in a caco closet that simply opens that secret door behind you at the start), and the small walkway that rises up out of the lava AFTER you could've had a use for it - alrighty then.  Got a kinda recycle of the 'surprise baron before the key' from map 15, only this time the lights go out and he is slowly raised up from the ground, classy.  And I gosta mention the music - I have no doubt that if (as the legend goes) John Romero took the E2M5 music (from what would have been it's first useage in Doom) to use in his E1M7, supposedly because he felt it was a great fit for the level, then he would definitely insisted on re-using the map 20 music for this one - it's got the low-key groove, slow build, and the epic solo, second only to the E1M8 one.  And yes, I still refuse to memorize the names of these tracks.  So yeah, great level.  

 

Monster Condo is definitely the spookiest map in Doom II.  In fact I'll go as far as saying it's goddamn terrifying.  I realized I was blocking this one out of my mind in the run up to this analysis, and going through it again, I'd forgotten a lot because I never really played it all that much, because of it's atmosphere.  It starts out with the first room seemingly empty, and dark, oh so dark, until you trip one of the many linedefs that opens a monster closet or two, and the resulting battle may cause you to trip yet another one.  Full points to that one linedef near the beginning that makes the whole place even DARKER.  He's a bad man, that Sandy.  The eerie music really adds to the feeling of dread throughout.  You've got classic stuff like the deadly-ass slaught library, the thirty-second secret (with a subtle clue), little 'boxes' holding torches which are badly needed light sources, a crooked stair riser (fuck yea), the green 'parallel universe' fights, the 'carousel' of revenants then hell knights, and of course the final room with all the impaled and hanging corpses.  Every monster used except for the caco and the big guys.  There is however a little bit of B.S. happening, what with two computer area maps, which makes 100% items impossible; an unobtainable secret on a teleporter pad, which makes 100% of THAT impossible; an area from this teleporter that can leave you stuck in the level if you didn't cross a specific linedef previously; a random 'invisible barrier' near the end (next to the last button); and of course, you can trick ol' archie into opening the red door for you if you're good enough.  Not to mention the other archie in the library can be in the vicinity of crushed corpses, which of course can lead to the most pants-shittingly scary bug in Vanilla Doom (and this is where I first encountered it, all those years ago).  But yeah, one freaky map, for sure.  Next...

 

Mixed feelings on The Spirit World, yeah.  Certainly one of the best-looking maps in Doom II, absolutely.  That whole 'grotto' part at the start has a kind of E3M2 feel but way cooler, and the decorative 'cracks' in the walls (E3M5 style) with the flashy lights that bleed into the lava streams look awesome, and the bigass 'spider nest' arena (which has a reprise of the ol' aracnotron-vs-mastermind battle, and the final word on the "all hitscanners can infight with their own kind" observation) looks imposing and colorful, as does the nutty 'throne room'.  But of course this level contains two mapping sins that I simply cannot forgive: Firstly, the door to the final room that is opened by shooting the wall next to it.  This is bullshit and I don't like it.  I can't remember if I personally got stumped by this progression back in the day, but I have heard heaps of stories of people thinking that this level was simply broken after humping every single wall and resorting to cheating to get in.  Not cool.  Secondly (oh yeah, you knew this was coming), the goddamn false walls with enemies behind them.  Extremely cheap tactic, and there's no way anyone can rationalize this one to me (I don't care if they're secret areas), getting attacked by something you cannot see AT ALL is not fun.  So yeah, you've also got that evil looking final room with baddies rising out of the ground that, for some reason, DON'T have baddies in them in HNTR difficulty which can lead to the player falling into them and getting trapped indefinitely - nice one, Sand.  And those redundant rooms to the north of the map can just PISS OFF, as far as I'm concerned (especially the one with the redundant switches that just turn the lights on and off, redundant).  And I think that FIVE invuln spheres is a bit much for a non-slaught map, I gotta say.  So yeah, not a fave of mine.  At least the music's cool...

 

And now, we come to the big one.  The Living End is the coolest level in Doom II, and possibly of all time.  Again, like Romero's previous opus Abandoned Mines, this one inspired TWO frickin' tributes to it in Final Doom - THIS is how you do a goddamn underground cavern.  Poetry has been written about this map.  Presentation is exquisite - the elevator sloooooowly lowers to reveal the hugeness of the place, and the giant structure in the middle - you can even see all the way to the next-to-last area in the north-east. You start getting sniped by various creatures in the distance, but of course you can use the enemies right in front of you as living shields (AGAIN with the enemies at the start of levels with their backs to you!!!).  Curious thing - the hell knight in the distance has a shot at you if you're on the right side of this platform, but his fireballs will always go just over your head - sometimes it's nice to know that even the baddies have an autoaim limit.  The mancs sometimes have problems with this as well. So yeah, this joint has a linear progression, basically working your way clockwise around the giant dark chamber, I love the flickering torches and strobe-y lighting, I like how The Romero allowed for a sequence break - if you don't follow the left path and instead jump down into the blood and run for that non-secret cave (and BTW, why isn't this tagged as a secret??) and teleport to the room with the cacos, there's a handy switch in there to lower the walls so you don't get stuck there.  Nice detail that.  You work your way around a thin catwalk, get surprised by a gunner nest, the old classic caco rising up from below, then you navigate up a very rickety looking staircase to the next part (I LOVE this staircase for some reason).  Slight annoyance here - you can bypass the hell knight room by shimmying past that block that's, um, blocking your path to jump onto the next platform, I dunno but that could've easily been made impassable, but whatever.  Another caco ambush, raise up a giant catwalk out of the blood to progress to the next part, oh yeah you can tell that E4M2 and 6 were made in the same mindframe as this one.  (And they were both definitely made AFTER this one, right?) How nice of him to put teleporters in the gaps between the catwalks so there's no inescapable death pits, thanks Bromero.  A trio of slightly-incongruous rooms follows - a rocky lava zone, then a woody E4M2-lookin' joint with an archie (you missed an upper texture in this room, dude), then a room with a sneaky baron teleporter trap that American undoubtedly pinched for E4M1.  Oh, and that block in front of the door pisses me off - I never liked it when an obstacle that looks like you could easily step over is used, just put some bars that go all the way to the ceiling or something - I don't like being reminded that Mr. Doomguy is too cool to jump or crouch.  Same goes with those little red and yellow bars to the eastern outside part of E4M6.  Okay, rant over.  Then you've got the second-last part, a squid-looking zone with a bunch of catwalks over more lava to the buttons and finally to the teleporter at the end (and one of the sergents on these catwalks is stuck in place), again cool lighting and vistas through the windows here.  Then of course you finally find yourself on the main structure you've been working around, make your way up the big ominous stairs to the final and hardest cyberdemon battle of the game - it's best to go toe-to-toe, rather than jumping back to the beginning to take him out from a distance.  (Or you could just run past him for the exit, but what fun is that?) Again, parallels to E4M6 are strong here - the cyberdemon is the centrepiece battle.  Classic.  Still learning new things about this level - that first platform you raise has unpegged textures; the cyberdemon is only alerted when you go up to him, but on HNTR the mancubus in its place gets alerted as soon as you make noise at the beginning - very weird.  So yeah, my favorite level in Doom 2, huge and sinister, the ledgewalking is NOT frustrating, again Romero hogs the best music tracks, and of course I used to think The Living End would be an awesome metal band name, at least until an actual band named The Living End came out a few years later, who were quite cool, but, y'know, not very 'Doom-ey', so uh, yeah.  

 

And now we bring it on home with the Icon Of Win, to some an anticlimatic final boss level but undoubtedly an epic challenge for a first-time player, assuming they know what to actually do of course.  I mean, they HAD to end it on a gigantic monster, and the idea that this is creature that is spawning all the monsters for the demonic invasion is awesome - shame there's no explanation as to why he's stuck in the damn wall (teleportation accident??).  Some people say that the way to kill the boss is too obscure; I mean, back in the day, me and my brother were told the method by a friend who'd already finished it, so I can't say, but I would guess that once somebody found their way to the top of the arena and hit that button to raise the pillar, it would seem obvious what needs to be done and where the weak point is (saying nothing about how only rockets work against it).  Yeah, I know, the key to defeating the final boss is directly related to a player movement restriction (can't aim up or down), but it's... a challenge, especially when there's projectiles and lost souls flying all over the place to try to knock you off.  Some people can do that wicked 'double-tap' thing where they score a hit on the way up, and another when they jump off - I could never do that.  It's cool they give you an elevator sequence to 'stall' you before you can hit the switch for the pillar (and that thing where adjacent elevators going to each other's lowest points used to mess with my head - I'd be like "why is this platform so low right now?").  The epic goat head on the wall looks suitably imposing, if flat, you've been seeing the face on those MARBFACE textures since E1M8 (good foreshadowing right there), too bad there's that slight graphical glitch on the tiling, the snotwalls and the lava floor aren't the best matchup but I guess it'll do, yeah, basically a race against time before the level fills up with an unmanageable amount of enemies (and literally a race against time before the whole game crashes, don't forget that the level was literally designed to ultimately overload), the music is on point, and c'mon, the epic explosion and death sound when you deliver that final hit is satisfying as Hell.  I have no real problems with this sinfully iconic final level, I can't think of any other way for the game to end, and neither could the makers of most community megawads either apparently - it's a trope to end a megawad with an Icon level.  And I don't even need to mention that two of the most iconic easter eggs in video game history reside in this level...

 

And then you got that weird 'cast sequence' at the end.  Bizarre way to end the game, really - okay, here's every enemy, their attacks, and them dying.  On an endless loop.  Okay.... cool.  The thing that pisses me off is that it shows Mr. Doomguy (or 'our hero') dying as well (which was the first time I and many people saw that) - dude, I don't wanna see that after I've just finished the game!! What's the goddamn point of showing me Doomguy's death animations??!?  And for that matter, what's the deal with the intermission text screens, giving the illusion of a developing storyline in the game - there's three throughout the game, after maps 6, 11 and 20 - are THESE the ends of episodes?!!? Why chuck exposition at us at these specific spots?!!?!?  I don't get it, man.  At the end and at the secret levels, yeah that's ok, but... i dunno...

******
Okay, that took a whole lot goddamn longer than I thought it would.  I seriously started this thing back in March of last year - I blasted through Doom II in about a week, taking my time, and thought I'd be able to pump this out in a few weeks, but my analysis just kept getting deeper and deeper - I got a hold of the demos of these levels to refer to, I kept finding out or remembering little things about certain maps, I really wanted to take my time and wring out my brain of all my observations and opinions like the Doom-soaked sponge that it is.  

I mean, that and the fact that I'm seriously lazy, had other stuff going on in my life, nearly scrapped this at several points - I wasn't certain how cringe it was gonna turn out.... but then again, this is the same forum that recently had an erotic fan fic of Doomguy and John Romero's goddamn head, so I thought it can't be all bad.  Worth a chuckle, right? I also got into Youtube dudes like Decino, Dean Of Doom and Kes Gaming, which all kinda shaped my analysis of Doom in some ways... I also found a whole bunch of weird Doom stuff...

So what am I up to now?  Well I crushed Icarus and Requiem, and am currently on map 19 of Memento Mori II (should've played this one before Requiem, grrrr...), and am dreading the Hell Revealed campaign... haven't really touched Maximum Doom much in the past year, except in cases where ol' Kes would trigger my OCD in one of his videos and I'd have to track down one of the wads to work out how to get through it.... what else.... eyeballing a few other classic Megawads like Scythe and shit, might even crank a bit of Sigil... but yeah, I think I'm done with ol' classic Doom II for now.... 

Final (Doom) thoughts - in my opinion, the only thing I would change (TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!) is make it a three-episode campaign like in Doom I, as opposed to a giant 32-level beast.  Yep, I'm one of those guys - it would break the game up, would more unify the groups of levels, and allow for more pistol-starts (hey man, who doesn't like starting at square one and fighting to get your tools back??)  But seriously, that is my only major complaint about possibly my all-time favorite game.  

TL; DR version:

Spoiler

Not quite as good as the first one 3.5/5

 

[Final Verdict]

Good write-up Max. Took awhile to read through but it transported me back to the 90's. I mean that in a good nostalgic way.

 

I don't have the time to touch on all the Doom II map assessments you made but I will mention that Memento Mori I & II are amongst my favourites. Like you said though you should have played Requiem after those two. Either way you'll have a blast going through those.

 

I'm with you on the episodic thing, it was one of the things I really missed in Doom II and Final Doom. If I had my way they would have all been divided up into episodes. I'm also "one of those guys" in that regard. 

 

Anyway, enjoyed reading it. It's a shame this didn't gain more traction. Good stuff.