Mortal Soul: Into the Deep – Large subterranean map from 2011 (now on /idgames)

[Stupid Bunny]

 

This is either the second or the third map of the set that I started, but was finished around a year after I began it, making it the first map with a properly long development time (though certainly not the last lol.)  It's also the first one that is properly large, and it's not the largest or most labyrinthine map you've ever seen but it's definitely big and probably bigger than it should be, even with my effort to make it all interconnect and loop back on itself somewhat.

 

Like the others, this isn't the first time this has been freely shared here, and the version here has come up at least a couple times.  And like the others, I've made edits to it that have not been played and am going getting it to a final state for /idgames upload time.  Because it's a big one it's probably best on its own anyway, even if it's still not the biggest in the set (though I'd put it as the penultimate one).

 

The entire map takes place underground and there is no sky anywhere.  That said there are some big empty open spaces inside, although many of them are inaccessible.  My desire to keep Doomguy from being thrown over the railing into the bottomless cavern below without use of impassable linedefs has kept the archvile count down. Atmosphere, exploration, and slow-burn progression were the design focus here I think, although the last bit was thwarted a bit I think by the way it interconnects with itself (the Installation does this better by having its final battle off in a separate area—sometimes linearity is better in parts).

 

Although the map has been tested quite a few times by both myself and a bunch of other people over the years, it is also in some ways not that well tested because its size makes thorough testing and balancing difficult.  I don't recommend trying to play it saveless the first time through, lol.

 

Play with:

DOOM2.WAD (MAP01 slot)

Any limit-removing port

Mods discouraged as they may break some of the dehackey decorations

Jump/crouch disabled (if you jump over the edge into the chasm I'm not responsible for what happens to you)

Freelook permitted

 

/IDGAMES DOWNLOAD

 

 

Other maps in set

Spoiler

 

 

Edited April 8 by Stupid Bunny : On /idgames

[Zahid]

good map 

prboom cl2 uv demo

popi9.zip

[Delisk]

 

[Stupid Bunny]

@Delisk thanks for the vid!  Always enjoy these, you and your little buddy there.  Curiously, this looks like the map did before I made some changes, even though I didn't change anything after I actually submitted the thread--most likely, Dropbox failed to sync it until after you had downloaded it.  The final battle should've been a bit less mean :p Still looks like you handled the challenge well.  Got one or two ideas for how to refine a couple bits.

 

@Zahid I'll check out your demo later--hopefully it's not all out of sync on account of above lol.

[Zesiir]

This looks to be right up my alley. I'm all for classic Doom 2 design. I'm going in blind!

 

51 minutes later...

 

What an epic map. Fantastic flow throughout, combat encounters were challenging for all the right reasons and one really had to conserve ammo in the beginning. Difficulty increases gradually as you gain more ammo and weapons, and you're expected to use them. And such good architecture, that just oozed Doom 2. The wide, open chasms were really cool and made the map feel absolutely enormous.

 

I was never bored, the environments and encounters were kept fresh through the entire journey.

 

The music fits the theme very well, and never gets old. Everyone who like classic Doom 2 style maps should give this one a go.

 

A few minor things;

 

Spoiler

 

Doorframes need to be unpegged

 

 

You expect me to believe this can be done in 30s?!

 

 

 

Edited March 29 by Zesiir

[Stupid Bunny]

@Zesiir I'm floored (in a good way obviously) that you liked it as much as you did...the big sprawly maps are definitely not for everybody, I've always had mixed feelings about this particular one myself in some ways, but it seems like it landed exactly the way I intended it to.  Thanks for checking it out and writing about it, I'm glad you enjoyed the adventure.  (The par time is for pros only, pros know when to use idclip you know)

[Insaneprophet]

Kills- 378/383 Secrets- 3/7 Items 33/35 Time- 51:48

 

THIS is what I love in Doom! Just one huge adventure. Outer Compound may be a near perfect map to me but this one is the one going in my favorites folder. And after nearly an hour making it through I still am missing more than half the secrets, I am one of the rare few who really really enjoy secret hunting so getting to go back in and having a reason to makes this level even more exactly one of my favorites ever! Thank you again for sharing these, Im enjoying all of them so much that it really does feel like a damn shame they never got compiled into a set. Anywho, at least I found them. 😀

 

[Stupid Bunny]

@Insaneprophet it sounds like you had the experience I was hoping the map would offer. I wasn’t sure how successful it would be in conveying its atmosphere but I’m happy it seems to have been (and that you have more secrets to go find ;3 ) As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I may one day return to and complete and re-release the set as it was intended to be. Just not any time soon, probably, so at least this way somebody gets to play them.

 

Anyway the map is on /idgames now, hopefully with no game crippling bugs that nobody has discovered yet.