Favorite Doom 1 maps

[Z86]

E1M7 - For me this is the definitive E1 style map. Dark hallways, lots of nukage and zombie hordes. I also remember finding the RL first here. I first identified it as a weird fishbone...

E1M6 - The lesser cousin of E1M7 IMO, but still quite good. Great starting and end rooms.

E1M2 - That comp maze was really frightening for young me.

E2M2 - I really love this map. It feels so weird and different after E1. The sound of nearby imps haunted my childhood.

E2M4 - This map has a pretty good atmosphere with lots of empty spaces then sudden ambushes. It also has a secret that I did not know how to open until quite recently.

E2M7 - There are some really good rooms, shame that a few others just feel unfinished. Still it's a very good map.

E3M1 - First, I love SP_HOT. Second, this map was such a rough start for the 3rd episode when I first played it, that I still remember that experience. BIGDOOR7s are scary.

E3M4 - The starting room and the room with the corpse wall view. Unfortunately this map has a lot of out of place rooms, but the GSTONE bits and also the crushers still get my love. Because I did not get the BFG secret in E3M3 first, my first BFG was here. At the time I thought it was an airplane or something (yes, my imagination is weird).

E3M6 - I loved it because it had a demo on it on the early versions of Doom. The exit also eluded me for quite a bit of time.

E3M7 - Not only did I love how it was represented by those pillar thingies on the intermission screen, the map itself is also very atmospheric, and took quite a bit of exploration at first to finish it.

For me E4 maps don't carry as much nostalgia as the others, since I played those much later. Still E4M1 and E4M6 are pretty darn good maps.

[rkdoomguy]

I also like Tenements, due to the layout and how passages from different rooms connect.

[purist]

I'll map one from each episode:

E1M5

I like the progression in this level and the long crooked walkway raising out of the nukage is still one of my strongest memories from Doom in the early days for me.

E2M2

This used to be my favourite map full stop. The crate maze has become a faux pas now but working through it in this level back in the 90s made me feel like I was in a real place I could relate to. It also helps that you find the first bezerk here and gives you plenty of imps to practice on.

E3M2

Being based almost entirely outside and surrounded by jagged rock this map feels like you're in the wildnerness of Hell. I think because of it's automap shape it gets an unfair rep as a novelty map but the frantic resource hunting gameplay stands up in it's own right.

E4M1

I don't have as much nostalgia over E4 as I played it much later. That said I was still fairly green to PWADs when I played the episode opener as I remember being shocked by the teleporting sergeants. This level is a lesson in simplicity. Aesthetically it has a neat and tidy look that I subsribe to and the gameplay is kept tough without relying on high monster count by being economical with health.

[Leon]

Mt. Erebus

[Relic]

I pretty much liked all levels in episode 1 because Romero's epic map Design. I also loved E4M2, that was a really fun and hard map.

[SFoZ911]

E3M2.

[Hellbent]

purist said:

I'll map one from each episode:

E1M5

I like the progression in this level and the long crooked walkway raising out of the nukage is still one of my strongest memories from Doom in the early days for me.

Same here. I remember it being sort of a turning point where I was like--"that's it, this game is way too cool".

Doom Nirvana an essay

Regarding love of Slough of Despair and Mt. Erebus. My initial experience of both maps was similar, but I am going to focus on Mt. Erebus since it perhaps represents the holy grail of episode 3 and perhaps of Doom as a whole. The more I played episode 1 the more I loved getting lost in the levels and searching for one more secret to find. It felt like an eternity before I finally got my grubby paws on the registered version of the game, and by that point I was biting at the bit to continue the adventure.

One of the main things I loved about episode 1 was trying to get outside, the growing desire and increasing curiosity to discover any new areas of this world I had come to know so well and become so fond of; to get outside the limits of the confining walls and explore the outdoor areas beyond; and whenever I did via a secret, those were always the best moments for me. I used to always equate finding secrets/getting outside in doom as some sort of higher purpose in the game, as if it represented the ultimate goal, beyond the ordinary goals of killing monsters and exiting the level. It may sound strange, but it was for me somehow the next evolution in the adventure, of taking the whole experience to the next level. Romero set me up with this cherished relationship to the game. How was I to know someone totally different was going to have designed the other two episodes of Doom? :-/ Such is the difference between Sandy and Romero and the rude awakenings to follow.

When I was plopped in the middle of E3M6, the 'ultimate doom/hell experience' without finding an intricate system of secret passages ala E1M3 to get me there it was a let down. It wasn't really required that there be a secret to get there, but just that there be the sense of adventure and discovery to get there. At the time I didn't know why it was a let down, which made the whole experience even worse, because here I had attained what the game had spent so much time building up in my mind as the ultimate goal, and instead of a eureka moment, the whole thing felt cheap. I felt betrayed. So instead of the expected reaction of "Doom Nirvana Wow!" I was let down that I didn't get to discover this awesome outdoor area on my own; I didn't get outside via some super-secret passageway; there was no contrast of indoor dungeon to finding my way up to the light and outside. The game supplanted the best part of getting from Unholy Cathedral to Mt. Erebus with an intermission screen. If you had started E3M6 while still within the dungeon of Unholy Cathedral and you had to find your way out, then that would have been much more gratifying. Instead, you had no part in the transition from the one extreme environment to the other; it was completely incongruous. This gives me an idea... if any map were to be called Nirvana back in the day; well, I suppose half of it would be E3M6 with the other half some dungeon-keep leading up to the fiery surface. If I'd remake Nirvana for this project, I would build the level to represent what back then (and still today) would be the ultimate build up and pay off in the Doom experience.

Certain things really worked so well for me in Doom (like rising catwalks, or hidden nukage passageways that led to outdoor areas that felt forbidden and on the outer limits of the game [E1M6 secret nukage passage could be argued to be one of the greatest single secrets ever for this reason]). I think these things in E1 worked so well because they were obviously cool and new and they were beyond what you as a player expected from the game. They added a whole other element of depth on top of the already great fun of exploring areas you were meant to explore and killing baddies you were meant to kill in a fluid, dynamic and fast-paced environment.

It's the sense of discovery that Doom gave the player that made it so great. When I got to E3M6 I was robbed of that discovery. It would be analogous to starting a Wolfenstein 3D level in a room with 4 extra lives and 30 crowns. No game designer in their right mind would ever do this. It would cheapen all the rest of the secrets you worked so hard to find in hopes of finding the ultimate treasure, the ultimate secret (as a side note, it's kind of like drugs--you are always looking for the better high, the next level--the ultimate high, the ultimate secret [I don't do drugs, or recommend them, but the analogy seems to work]).

I still like E3M6, but now for different reasons than why I wanted to like it back then; now I like it because it has fun and frenetic gameplay and the hoardes of cacodemons match the epicness of the level. I just don't have those warm and fuzzy memories attached to it the way I do to the E3M3 firewall secret or many areas in House of Pain (dried up skin floor/pillars, first blue armor secret; BFG secret, pillars of tortured bodies in a blood chamber; or perhaps more presciently, the awesome secrets of E1).

I remember looking at images of episode 3 in the readme of shareware Doom and being like "I can't wait to discover those outdoor areas!!" and then having all my dreams dashed because I didn't get to discover a single one of them. I was just spoon fed all three of them (E3M1, E3M2, E3M6), like opened presents dropped in my lap two days before Christmas. I suppose E3M1 can be forgiven because it's a dramatic and logical way to introduce the episode, but when I saw that open hell-scape on the box art I thought it was going to be the final level of the game, not the first! See, that open-hell scape represented to me the ultimate goal and destination in the Doom adventure, what all the levels were working towards in the evolution of the exciting and atmospheric environments that contained you in bases and teased you with the eventual promise of going outside--the spiritual end to Doomguy's mission: to venture out onto the very blood-soaked surface of hell, an Inferno-scorched battleground beneath your feet and burning mountains stretching toward a fallen sky; the final stage to seek out and confront the final boss of all your nightmares. That, to me, represented Doom Nirvana. I was robbed of the best parts of the game: they came in precisely the wrong order or the intermediary ones required no work to find; there was to be no discovery of such exciting, new areas through exploring secrets or caverns that led you outside and there was to be no outdoor hell-scape for the final showdown.

I think all this illustrates why, when I did reach a level in Doom 2 called Nirvana, I was let down again by the gimmick that Map21 ended up being: if only the makers of the game actually knew what Doom Nirvana was. A field of medikits it is not. Oh, the irony....

[Alfonzo]

Man, E2M2: Filtration Compound has got to be a contender. It was sprawling and different from anything else in the game, and felt sort of like a base from KDITD which had been flooded with demonic influence. For me it marked an even better transition into the new episode than E2M1: Receiving Station did, but that was a cool map as well!

Inferno's E3M3: Malebolge is where Doom stopped playing around though. It's where I discovered just how difficult the game could get, and how much fun I could have in finding out different ways to make it through a level--

Waaaait a minute...

[Dragonsbrethren]

E1M1, E1M2, E1M3, E1M5, E1M7, E2M1, E2M2, E3M5. Not that I dislike many of the ones I left out.

I really like the Jaguar version of E2M7 (MAP15), I think it plays a lot better than its PC counterpart and it has a new stone and wood texture scheme that works well for the transition between E2 and E3. The brick E1M5 retexture is nice too, and the marble E3M3 even if it's not one of my favorite maps, and had a part of the layout that made it flow better cut for no apparent reason.

[Arjak]

For some reason, I have a special place in my heart for E1M3. It just has this strange mystique. Maybe it's the map design, or the layout of the secrets. Heck, it might be the nostalgia of finding the secret level for the first time. All I know is that when I first started secret hunting, that level entranced me. I only just recently discovered how to get up to that missile crate on the ledge above the toxin pool. It was...wait, it will come to me, I know it had something to do with the path to the secret level...

[Hellbent]

Arjak said:

For some reason, I have a special place in my heart for E1M3. It just has this strange mystique. Maybe it's the map design, or the layout of the secrets. Heck, it might be the nostalgia of finding the secret level for the first time. All I know is that when I first started secret hunting, that level entranced me. I only just recently discovered how to get up to that missile crate on the ledge above the toxin pool. It was...wait, it will come to me, I know it had something to do with the path to the secret level...

E1M3 was legendary. Those secrets were quintessential quintessence. Romero created a masterpiece with that episode and those secrets. I remember the mystique of the locked yellow key door tucked away deep in a far corner of the map. You knew something awesome was gonna be behind that locked door. That's what I loved about e1--the secrets always delivered.

[DoomUK]

All of them. No really, there's not a Doom (1) map that I don't care for or skip. Not even the E4 maps.

[valkiriforce]

DoomUK said:

All of them. No really, there's not a Doom (1) map that I don't care for or skip. Not even the E4 maps.

Same here, but the maps I especially liked are:

E1M1: Hanger
E1M2: Nuclear Plant
E1M3: Toxin Refinery
E1M7: Computer Station
E1M8: Phobos Anomaly
E2M9: Fortress Of Mystery
E3M6: Mt. Erebus
E4M2: Perfect Hatred
E4M3: Sever The Wicked
E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly
E4M7: And Hell Followed
E4M8: Unto The Cruel
E4M9: Fear

[glenzinho]

Hellbent said:

Doom Nirvana essay

Your views and wonderful prose on this subject brought forth my memories from 1994 and what I felt about Episode 1 and its secrets. Your points on E3M6 make a lot of sense as well. I commend you for this fine piece of opinion you have committed to keyboard... *sheds an almost manly tear of nostalgia* Well done, good sir, well done.

[ella guro]

for me:

e1m3 - love the feel esp the outside part, great secrets
e1m4 - kind of the "dark horse" of episode 1, several cool areas
e1m5 - a lot of interesting areas, good flow
e1m7 - definitely sums up the whole e1 aesthetic
e1m8 - still the most memorable final level i've played
e2m2 - great for many reasons which have been articulated before
e2m4 - a very strange carnival ride type experience. used to be my favorite doom level
e2m7 - somewhere in between map 2 and 4 in terms of feel
e3m3 - feels more like its picture on the intermission screen than any other doom level
e3m5 - the theme is original, i actually like the teleporters
e3m6 - better than any of the doom 2 maps of that style, for me
e3m7 - this gives off a very somber, otherworldly sort of feeling that you rarely see in doom
e3m9 - great concept
e4m2 - difficult, compact, but rewarding level
e4m3 - i guess i just always liked being outside in the orange sky
e4m6 - probably my favorite doom level, when it comes down to it. wonderful atmosphere and design.

[xxbio Warfare11]

My most favorite Doom1 map is Spawning Vats, And...Containment Center.

[baronofheck82]

All of the first episode, except for E1M9 - I have never been a big fan of that map.

[schmerr]

E1M1. E1 frickin M1. The level design never ceases to draw my infatuation, the music makes the hardcore doom style evident from the start, I hold that map dear to my heart. And i love the soundtrack with a fiery murderous passion. Dont Judge ^_^

[LakiSoft]

E3M8 and E2M8 cuz of kick-ass Boss action. E1M8 cuz of music and design. Both Whole Episode 3 and Episode 4 has cool level design.

[nicolas monti]

xxbio Warfare11 said:

My most favorite Doom1 map is Spawning Vats, And...Containment Center.

Same here man! our tastes are needles in a hay.

[Netherstorm]

My top five favorite doom 1 maps:

1. E4M6 - Against thee wickedly
2. E2M8 - Tower of Babel
3. E3M5 - Unholy cathedral
4. E1M2 - Nuclear plant
5. E4M9 - Fear

[Joshua Schäferhund]

E2M4: Deimos Lab.

Dark, creepy as hell (pun intended), and the music just sounds haunting (especially on OPL.) I remember having chills sent down my spine when I first watched the demo of the level that popped up on v1.2. I especially got goosebumps when I saw the Cacodemons getting crushed to death and when I saw those demonic gargoyles in the first nukage room and their red eyes staring at me, all while the music gets more intimidating and threatening, especially on the second and third parts of the song. That level defines Doom to me.

I also really like E1M2, E1M5, E1M7 and E3M7.

[_bruce_]

Hellbent - awesome musings on Episode 1 and the more hellish E3 roster!

E3M6 made me really, REALLY, love Doom, though I totally understand the letdown it embodied from your perspective given the intimate relation you developed to the "Romero" side of the game.
Also totally agree with you on the secrets aspect in general and more specific regarding episode 1 - I was literally in awe when "discovering" them.*


*most of the time a friend of mine, ace gamer, showed me the various secrets. I sat there like a child on Christmas all the while this "insider" buddy of mine showed me parts of different maps I thought I knew... needless to say E1M3 totally blew my mind... it made me join the club of people eternally in debt to Doom.

[peach freak]

Am I the only one that absolutely hated Mt. Erebus when I first played it (don't hate the map anymore)?

My only way of playing E3 as a kid was through SNES Doom, and you could only play episode 3 on harder skill levels, meaning that the Blue Key was harder to get in Mt. Erebus.

I spent ages, and ages, and ages, and ages looking for that goddamn Blue Key in Mt. Erebus. And the only online walkthrough at the time, the Doom Key FAQ, which provided no help at all:

On low levels it is on the floor in an area with four Imp cages. On higher levels the BLUE KEY is in the Y-shaped structure, in the southeast branch.

That was all that was provided, with no description on how to get into "the Y-shaped structure".

So, one day, I find a secret, jump into the blue box, hit the switch thinking that the box will lower, allowing me to escape, and I exited the level, having no idea that I found the secret exit. Never needed to worry about that ****ing piece of crap Blue Key again.

So while you guys continue to love E3M6, be reminded, it traumatized and harassed kids like me.

[Obsidian]

I haven't played Thy Flesh Consumed yet, but these are my favourite maps so far:

E1M7: Probably the most competent map in the whole episode, if not the game. The layout is brilliant, the secrets are well made and the level of detail is surprisingly high.

E3M3: Most likely because it reminded me of E1M7. :P Plus the music is great.

[joe-ilya]

E3M6 - duh!
Spawning vats - best tech base in doom.
E4M8 - I like the two bosses combination : Barons and SM
All of the secret maps and all of the E_M1 maps