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Wovenloaf

E1 cult - why?

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I've noticed that there's a certain preference among many Doomers for E1 of Doom, and I wonder if there's any particular reason for that other than nostalgia. I don't see the same fetishism, so to speak, for something like Episode 3 (which I find to be much better), a section of Doom II, Plutonia, etc. Is it a matter of E1 having a certain design and immersion that Doom's experience afterward doesn't have? How do you explain and quantify this? I'll grant that playing E1 of all things through now would bring me the closest to the original feeling I got from first playing the game, but I don't see that as making it necessarily better.

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I always prefered E1 for its more run & gun approach. Attempting UV-maxes and movies on it really made me appreciate how smooth and fun it is. But between you and me, my absolute favorite has to be E4. I am really fond of E4M2 and E4M6 though it is only recently that I feel I really grasp what I like about them.

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Probably simply because it's the most played part. Want to quickly test a Doom feature? Load up E1. Showcasing a new Doom port or recreation? Always with E1 (esp. E1M1). And, after all, it came with the Shareware.

The levels themselves are some of the most complex in the official IWADs, architecturally speaking. Again, not a coincidence -they had to "sell" the game to players via the Shareware, and already as you start from e.g. E1M1, you already see cool features of the Doom engine and complex architecture like windows, outdoors, etc.

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my guess is:

- most thematically consistent stretch of any iwad (compare to D2, or the rest of D1, where practically every map looks like a random selection from a grab-bag)
- high density of "iconic"/memorable maps. e1m1,m2,m3,m5,m8, fall into this category (at least to me, where as I have a hard time recalling more than 1-2 maps from the other episodes without having to think about it)
- probably the most played, as mentioned above. Additionally I venture more people have started playing doom1 than have actually finished it, so the early maps stick out.

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It's not surprising that E1 is regarded as the favorite, but I'll be honest -- I've always been more partial to E2.

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Maes said:

Probably simply because it's the most played part.

For me it's the reason to hate it. In childhood for a long time we had nothing but E1 so we played it to death and got absolutely sick of it. Same effect as with D_RUNNIN, D_E1M1, etc.

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E1 is what got me hooked on Doom. Of course it had a lasting effect. That these levels are the best constructed out of all IWAD level also plays a major part.

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I personally find E1 to be the most pleasing to the eye and the detail a lot nicer, but not the best for game play. The other episodes looked more monotonous and not as memorable however, I found the game play to be better with the later episodes.

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First, what Maes said. Second, it's still relatively normal, there are no demon-ish stuff yet, you feel safer (at least I do). Not E3 with psychedelic levels (IMO). Not E4 with its really insane difficulty, compared to the rest of the game. E2 was pretty similar, but the catch is this: you had to pay for it :)

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Edited by Justince

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I prefer the aesthetic of E1. I'm not very partial to the hell levels visually. I like the way the levels flow (most of them anyway). Just something about the moon base techy look of it all. And it had a great finish to boot with E1M8.

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bzzrak said:

it's still relatively normal, there are no demon-ish stuff yet, you feel safer (at least I do).

Yeah, E1 was standard military base, with very little corruption. Very good levels, but not much scary stuff.
E2 is where it really got serious. Deimos Lab used to really freak me out, especially that entire area beyond the red room. Halls of the Damned also had that dark maze, which was more upsetting to me than the one in Phobos Lab (it's more claustrophobic, and the monsters are less human-like). Then there's that fake exit...
By early E2, it's pretty clear you're not in Kansas anymore. But in E3, you start to wonder if Kansas even exists.

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I like E1's sci-fi (Mars' moon techbase) theme, non-orthogonal level design, decently varied architecture and lighting (for an early game with 3D appearance, awesome), colorful-ness, upbeat music (mixed with ominous sounding tracks), relatively high density (on UV, sometimes) of low-HP monsters to fight, and possibility to run-and-gun through the maps at fast pace for challenge and excitement.

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I've always liked Episode 2 more, it has a bigger cast of monsters, some of the my favorite levels are from Episode 2 ( E2M2 and E2M6), not to mention that the cyberdemon fight feels more like a proper boss fight when compared to the bruiser brothers

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I also like E2 better gameplay aside. E2 has so many memorable and interesting standout parts in the maps and weren't only techbase themed. Like the red damaging cross in e2m1, the containment area, the overgrown refinery, the eerie blue lab, red crusher and scrolling faces on the wall. Command center is probably my favorite map because of its diversity with such as the long corridors in slime leading to secret areas, the stairs into the lost souls, the hurting rune-wall, the dark brick exit, the zombieman room, the caged baron. Halls of the damned with its fake exit, crusher rooms and dark maze really scared the living hell out of me as a kid, and oh my god the music. Really creepy. Spawning vats was okayish but the cyberdemon boss battle was really a standout, and really tough.

For me it's no contest at all. :)

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E1 is the Shareware episode, it's the version that was the most accessible at the time, so a lot of the older crowd have played it during their childhood.

I grew up on Doom 64 and Doom 2 so that is my go to game/episode.

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I enjoy E2 and E3 more than E1, despite only having the shareware back in the day and playing it repeatedly. I think nostalgia is a big part of the whole "E1 cult" if you will.

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I like E2 and E4 more than E1, but not at all with E3 which is my least favorite. But with E1 I don't dislike it nor like it, I am simply neutral towards it.

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Some episode 1 maps are brilliant (and more consistent, but then too much Startan). And yes, that's all the maps we remember, from the shareware episode.

But I really don't hate E2 or E3 as some people do. And maybe I like episode 2 more than 3. There are a lot of levels that are personally favorite in those too. Hell, I even love E2M2 which everyone hates. Maybe I love crates and punching imps with the berserk. Huge crate mazes infested with imps. And how they mixed a warehouse with a marble ancient temple and tech and other random rooms. I love a lot of aspects of this map.

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It's not that I hate E1 or E2 (though, I really think much of the aesthetic suffers from the engine limitations), I just wish we had more content like E1 than what we got. Specifically the first few levels. As it went on it lost some of its appeal. All the toxic pools everywhere and whatnot.

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Maes said:

Probably simply because it's the most played part. Want to quickly test a Doom feature? Load up E1. Showcasing a new Doom port or recreation? Always with E1 (esp. E1M1). And, after all, it came with the Shareware.


Your theory doesn't hold water in my case. E1 was always my favorite, even when Doom came out. I actually remember being somewhat disappointed by the following episodes. I perceived it as a drop in quality and felt that, despite the new goodies and new monsters, the later levels were less polished and all over the place thematically.

Maes said:

The levels themselves are some of the most complex in the official IWADs, architecturally speaking.


Maybe not the most complex, but they're definitely the most polished ones. Stylistically, there's also a very strong sense of cohesion that is not present in any of the other IWAD levels.

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If my habits are any indication, Doom 2 should be more popular as an environment for testing new things. It has more shit, and it's the default IWAD for modding.

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There are so many empty rooms in the later episodes....or maybe it's just the wall details that are uninteresting. I suppose the rooms were relatively empty in E1 as well, but the rooms just look more interesting with their intricate computer designs and wall trimmings and whatever. E2 and E3 you've got wood, stone, vines, more wood, blood, flesh, more wood, more stone. Not very interesting. I'm going mostly off of memory and my first impressions years back, though.

Or maybe it's that it's more colourful and the E2/E3 levels are more monochromatic by comparison.

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MusicallyInspired said:

There are so many empty rooms in the later episodes....or maybe it's just the wall details that are uninteresting. I suppose the rooms were relatively empty in E1 as well, but the rooms just look more interesting with their intricate computer designs and wall trimmings and whatever. E2 and E3 you've got wood, stone, vines, more wood, blood, flesh, more wood, more stone. Not very interesting. I'm going mostly off of memory and my first impressions years back, though.

Or maybe it's that it's more colourful and the E2/E3 levels are more monochromatic by comparison.

Nah, E2 and E3 are pretty colorful. They're where you find the most extreme color themes in the game. You get FIREBLU buildings, REDWALL rooms, and so on...

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Not all in one place, though. I'm playing through E2 now, as it happens. I'm on level 6 or something now. All I remember streaming by as I played was lots of brown, then lots of red, then lots of blue, then lots of pinks. Areas consist of concentrations of a single hue with little deviation. I just don't get that sense in E1.

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Tbh, Theres more nostalgia associated to E2 for me than E1. Sure I played the shit out of the shareware but finally playing E2 after continuously replaying E1 felt like a brand new experience with the introduction of the Cyber demon and Plasma Gun, and levels like Halls of the Damned and Containment Area are some of my all time favorite levels.

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