Most memorable physical Doom locations

[TheeXile]

What parts of the Doom games do you consider most memorable? Try to avoid more obvious places like boss arenas and such.

You can pick locations from any pwads you like, too.




Offhand, for Doom 2, I think I'm torn between Map 08's (Tricks and Traps) Baron + Cyberdemon room, and Map 28's (Spirit World) rocky room with the lava cracks and such. There are others, but those are the ones that I think left the biggest impressions on me the first time I played.


Your turn.

[Reisal]

Doom's E1M1 starting room, E1M5 nukage rooms, E2M4's somewhat confusing layout and E2M6's dark corridors.

Doom 2 MAP15 with the large buildings and extreme height differences, MAP16 teleport ambush location and the ubiquitous MAP01 starting location.

[David_Dweedle]

Lemme think....

Well Tricks and Traps is a given because that Baron Cyber room scared the living shit out of me when I was little...

Also ive always liked that Mount level in Episode 3 of Doom.. cant remember its name but I know it has the secret level entrance.. always seemed to be one of my fav lvls.. cant remember the name tho.. funny that.

[arrrgh]

That bit in E1M2 with the chainsaw. And E2M4 in it's entirety... I think that was because the first time I ran out of ammo before the round room with the staircase and imps in lowered rooms and wandered all across the map looking for ammo until I just restarted the episode.
btw David_Dweedle, the map you're thinking of is Mt. Erebus.

[DuckReconMajor]

The room in E2M5 with the vine-covered walls and the Barons that come down on the columns is probably my favorite part in all of Doom.

[Mithral_Demon]

Doom 1:
E1M5 - The Teleport Star secret was rather impressive, made it easy on lengthy-free playing, also for messing with the specters and demons in the room next to it, teleport and laugh at them not reaching you.

Doom 2:
Map 28 Spirit World- The rom with the Arachnotrons and Spider Masterminds, perfect infight, still challenging.

Final Doom-
Uhm... There was a Mountain level much like on Doom 1, but you could see Lost Souls teleporting and cacos into an open field (still Doom 2 because it had Chaingun commandos on patforms)...

[ultdoomer]

Mithral_Demon said:

Final Doom-
Uhm... There was a Mountain level much like on Doom 1, but you could see Lost Souls teleporting and cacos into an open field (still Doom 2 because it had Chaingun commandos on patforms)...

Mount Pain?

[Mithral_Demon]

ultdoomer said:

Mount Pain?

Yeah, I think thats it, I just don't remember names as well as I did...

[wildweasel]

E1M1's green armor pedestal, E3M2's giant hand layout, Map03's water bridge type area, the tall buildings of Map15, and of course who could forget the Map30 arena?

[Stupid Bunny]

My two favorite city locales are MAP15 of Doom II and MAP29 of Plutonia. Also, whichever the abandoned mines are, MAP26 I think.

MAP27 of TNT...the part Mithral Demon mentioned with the massive outdoor area with the lava rivers and the mountain with the teleporting lost souls and fire and stuff. That was impressive, especially after how dark and indoorsy the rest of the level was.

And finally, I have to add MAP27 of Scythe II and MAP13 of Equinox, both of which broke my epic scale.

[Christoph]

I'm gonna go for less well-known areas in favor of somewhat obscure ones that I find particularly fascinating and inspiring (or personally memorable). Here goes:

e1m3: the foyer behind the left door of the starting area (with the supercharge in the dark window) and the places connecting to it. I just like the way it's done.

e1m4: the large starting foyer with all the other hallways attaching to it from different places. I'm a fan of artfully multi-faceted foyerish areas. Actually that whole map is one of my favorites as far as textures and layout.

Come to think of, I love all the E1 maps besides 1, 2, and 8 (they're ok but the rest kick so much ass). Sorry for being general.

e2m4: I enjoy large tall hauntingly atmospheric places with plenty of running space, and pulling it off with techbase textures is even better. Although I don't so much like the areas after the complue and (redshawn?) halls.

map02: I like the overall style/concept to begin with. Particularly the small little comproom with the SSG, and that it's below the water level.

map06: I REALLY like the backpack/megasphere secret in the second key room. It just feels so fucking earthy and cozy...

map12: I always like the first inside area with the mancubi, nevermind whatever the rooms attached to it are like.

map24: the computery areas always tickled my fancy, esp. given the context of the rest of the map (dark, huge, open, hostile). Makes them feel more inviting and different.

map28: entire map is just oozing with creativity and strange "otherwordliless". Heh heh..

map29: I like the use of tanrock throughout, especially the area after the first mandatory tp where you are in a small alcove at the base of those wickedly (but not annoyingly) winding steps.

map31: the backpack/etc secret in the room full of demons (or dogs in wolfenstien3d). An interesting break from 2-d squareness.

PWADs can wait for another post...

[TheeXile]

Interesting. I always thought the same thing about that The Crusher secret.

You seem to have about nailed a lot of my favorites in one go.

[Super Jamie]

E1M2's dark maze, particularly the secret passage up to the chainsaw. E1M3's outdoor slime donut. E1M9's central monster cage. E2M2 has so many; the crate maze, the pointlessly moving "piston" platforms, the damaging electronic passageways, the crushers. E2M3's thin-walled slime areas, and the flesh-cube room. E3M1's flesh lift. The first time you realise E3M2 is shaped like a hand.

Less spring to mind in Doom 2. The raising and lowering "kiosk" at the start of MAP04. Definitely MAP07. MAP10 also has a few, the metal hitscanner area with all the secrets, and the Cyberdemon room at the exit. The whole outdoor area of MAP15 (which was done very well, despite the rest of the city maps being mostly shite). The first house of MAP16 where the Arch Vile comes in the front door. The big X of health vials in MAP18. MAP23's barrel tricks. The first Arch Vile in MAP27.

Memento Mori's "The Bridge" sticks in my mind, simply because there's nothing really like it. Remain1 MAP10 has some of the most incredible outdoor architecture I've ever seen in the Doom engine, the first time I cleared that map I just walked around for about 40 minutes in awe. The whole train concept in njtrain. The central hub in Cleimos. The bench with the hammer on it in neith (or was it neith2?). The part in Yesterday's Nightmare where the crowd of demons run across the lava into the teleporters.

[TheeXile]

Super Jamie said:

MAP10 also has a few, the metal hitscanner area with all the secrets, and the Cyberdemon room at the exit.

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about those. :P

[Butts]

The huge room with the cyber in e4m6.
e1m2 chainsaw secret.
doom2 map07.
plutonia map06 cyber room.
tnt egypt level when you first walk in.

[david_a]

Doom 2 MAP11 - 'O' of Destruction

Maybe it's just that it was featured in one of the demos so it's burned into my mind, but who doesn't immediately know what map this is just from the title?

[Pirx]

ultdoomer said:

Mount Pain?

mount erebus, e3m6. mount pain is tnt m27.

of course, memorable from the POV of a doom newbie, but mount erebus and generally doom's ep.3 left me speechless when i saw it for the first time. i only knew it's a game where you fight hell, and this was the best picture of hell i've ever seen in a game (and btw i think that doom's unique design is still unmatched in this respect). everyting was right, the demons, the fire & brimstone map design, the textures with demon heads, pentagrams and blood stains, the candlesticks and flesh walls. the game's third demo was on e3m6, and i watched in awe how romero or whoever it was slaughtered seemingly endless hordes from hell. luckily i didn't know what slaughter wads were to come years later.

other visually memorable locations were the soul wall in e3m3 (?) where i watched those distorted faces for minutes, and the central hub of the unholy cathedral e3m5, it was indeed like a devil's church, and the baron inside scared the crap out of me.

other than that, e2m2. the music was perfect, i noticed that berserk enabled me to splatter imps with my fists, so i went hunting them in the crate maze.

doom 2 had the harder fights, but less memorable scenes. map07 seemed brutally hard then, as i was keyboarding and barely strafing. a wall lowered and left me standing in a courtyard with no escape from fat creatures who toasted me within seconds. the crusher stuck in my mind for this huge room and elevator, m28 again had a great uphill battle and music (of course i had to kill the cyberdemon) and the chasm must have been the silliest and most frustrating map ever.

[esselfortium]

Probably lots of things, but offhand I remember the room with the candelabras and midtex fences right before the exit in e1m1 (er, I think it was that room, at least), and the "machines" made of moving floors in e2m2 really leaving an impression on my young mind for some reason.

[kristus]

I'll try to keep it short.

Doom1:
The big windows in the maps of the first episode. They were very special to me.
The outside area in E1M6 after the nukage canal.
The nukage areas in E1M7
and the "office" areas in E2M7

Doom2: (It's easier to just mention levels here)
The Pit
Downtown
The Industrial Zone
Tenements
Chasm
The Abandoned Mines
The Spirit world
The living end.

[40oz]

I'm not really sure. Whenever I think of the IWADS the first thing that comes to mind is the starting position.

E1M3's oval platform thing
E1M6's 4 square rooms with the crosses (right before you get the yellow key)
E1M7, that elevated tekwall platform where you can pick off the zombies through the cracks in the ceiling. Also when you go up the curved staircase, and the middle pillar lowers down revealing shotgun guys. Good surprise there there.

MAP02, that brown brick bunker where all the shotgun guys are
MAP03, that main room where you meet chaingun guy for the first time.
MAP06, The Crusher. Obviously.
MAP29, seeing that big mountain in the distance where you evantually fight the cyberdemon.

[pavera]

All of E1M7
The "spawning pits" of E2M7
The beginning shot of E3M2, which I just love because the flickering of the torches seems to go so well with the level music.
The beginning screen of Underhalls is forever burned into my memory from testing so many maps...
Industrial Zone.. though I'm not sure why. I must have played this level a lot when I was a young kid.
'O' Of Destruction
Beginning screen of The Factory, cause that's where I generally quit playing through Doom 2.
Nirvana, has to be one of the most awful maps in Doom 2. That poison area with the key doors is forever burned into my memory as well, and not in a good way.
I'll never forget the beginning screen of Tenements, or the curvy stair-bridge thing right before the archvile.
Same with the Abandoned Mines, simply because I used to watch the demos over and over when I was a little guy. I wished I could play that good.
I guess that's it...

[Shanoa]

Map11 of Plutonia, i'll remember the music forever.
Map29 of Plutonia, the layout is just awesome.
e1m1, the beginning room.
The obvious e2m8 for the Cyberdemon. (had to mention it)
map15 of Doom 2, same reason than Mr.Chris as well as the layout.

[MP2E]

E4M2's beginning, when I first saw it, I was like "Goddamn, this level is gonna kick ass". Sure enough, it did. ;)

[Reevys]

The area with the red key in Sever The Wicked. I just always liked it for some reason, probably because the building it's in is what convinced me you could have room over room in Doom. I know better than that now though.

The starting area of Tower Of Babel is another good one, although the whole level itself is very memorable. It's just that bit specifically that I remember when I think about it.

[myk]

This is one of those questions where I'll answer a different thing each time I'm asked. Without checking other replies (because it'd affect me), I tried to concentrate just now on memorable spots and thought of the jump to the teleporter building in Map19 and the lowering pillar with a few shotgun guys in E1M7. The DOOM games seem more about many small memorable aspects than something where a few places or things stand out. I wager much of that is tied to having fun playing, as opposed to observing locations or designs in a static manner.

[Super Jamie]

JohnnyRancid said:

I'm not really sure. Whenever I think of the IWADS the first thing that comes to mind is the starting position.

Enjay's mentioned this before, but MAP02 has probably the most-seen start room ever. After all, how many MAP01 PWADs have you played and finished?

[DuckReconMajor]

Super Jamie said:

After all, how many MAP01 PWADs have you played and finished?

Or made and tested.

[Stupid Bunny]

Krispavera said:

The beginning screen of Underhalls is forever burned into my memory from testing so many maps...

I'll add this to my list.

[wildweasel]

Super Jamie said:

Enjay's mentioned this before, but MAP02 has probably the most-seen start room ever. After all, how many MAP01 PWADs have you played and finished?

This gives me a wickedly devious idea for a WAD: make a really short Map01, then have Map02 start off in the exact same starting area of Doom 2's Map02, except that as soon as you enter that small door up the stairs, everything beyond that is different. =P

[TheeXile]

WildWeasel said:

This gives me a wickedly devious idea for a WAD: make a really short Map01, then have Map02 start off in the exact same starting area of Doom 2's Map02, except that as soon as you enter that small door up the stairs, everything beyond that is different. =P

Way to guarantee 90% of people won't think to play it further than that part. :P