Best Level

[TheNerdTurtle2]

ChekaAgent said:

^^ Yeah, i really like that midi, too. One of the best, imo.
Also, map with sergeants is 3rd map, not 2nd, but that's just a nitpick.. It, too, has a really cool music, and i, too, like this map very much!

Oh wait! The imp map is MAP02 right? Yeah I'm sorry I haven't played 1monster in so long I probably should have done my research

[darkreaver]

Disturbia

[kuchitsu]

Maybe not the best, but Map21 from Community Chest 4 was really good. Unique, wonderful, romantic, engaging, and all that.

[SFoZ911]

Heretic E5M7 Foetid Manse. Very impressive design for that era in my opinion and overall enjoyable.

[Avoozl]

It would be nice if there was a map voting for Final Doom's best map, but I doubt that will ever happen.

[Spectre01]

Avoozl said:

It would be nice if there was a map voting for Final Doom's best map, but I doubt that will ever happen.

What for? There is only one choice and it's Plutonia Map 29, Odyssey of Noises.

[jazzmaster9]

rileymartin said:

What for? There is only one choice and it's Plutonia Map 29, Odyssey of Noises.

I second this. That map is amazing.

[mrthejoshmon]

TNT MAP14 Steel Works is the best IMO, I just can't even understand why I love it so much.

[valkiriforce]

It'd be nice if I could see the number of times I've played certain maps the most but I think I might have to say TNT MAP31 Pharaoh for that (with the patch of course). Love the atmosphere, love the music...and I actually like that it feels kind of desolate even though there's still plenty of action to be had. I also like that really weird Cybderdemon battle on a floating platform. It's a level that fits nicely as being a place you'd like to imagine yourself exploring, because as an IWAD level I remember thinking this was really huge.

[Royal_Sir]

BYHAE's Map 12.

It's a beautiful rendition of a colorful Techbase and outside. It really feels like an actual installation due to the atmosphere and detailing. Plus, the area is laden-heavy with secrets and optional areas, and features some awesome stuff like defensive turrets.

[rehelekretep]

god this is hard to pick - i think ive been most impressed by various levels from Sunder and Sunlust - also a recent map01 by Benjogami with a really unique design and colour palette - https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1586545

[valkiriforce]

I'm gonna have to say Industrial Zone is another close favorite of mine - I still enjoy playing it to this day; and it's even more fun on co-op.

[Guest]

[Tracer]

Anything in Cold As Hell.

[gaspe]

Eternal Doom IV MAP27.

[Jello]

Perfect Hatred. I love to hate that level. Every time I play through Episode 4 I hate that level, but it's fun. Because every time I play it, I get better at it. It loves to hate you, small platforms, low ammo and health, jumping down into a pit of Barons, Specters, and Cacodemon's. Running for your life and finding a nest of Lost Souls. It really would've been better at level 5 or 6 difficulty wise, but it gets you ready for Thy Flesh Consumed. And then running past a Cyberdemon to get to the exit.

The name sums it up. It is a small level, with enemies in the exact right places to make you run off into lava, with minimal health and ammo... it's the perfection of hatred.

Played through Alien Vendetta and Memento Mori 1 & 2, countless other wads that are essentially 'harder', but most of the time I have room to move. Or retreat. Perfect Hatred starts you off on a ledge, and if you move forward, the only way back is either through, or jumping into the lava and fighting your way back up the fucking lave staircase.

[Azazel Bloodfucker]

Jello said:

Perfect Hatred.

I loved that level, sadly that is one of the only levels in episode four that I like. Also do you know about the secret BFG in that level? Because you have to grab it out of a fucking wall in a secret room, literally a secret nobody would find legit.

[Crunchynut44]

Azazel Bloodfucker said:

I loved that level, sadly that is one of the only levels in episode four that I like. Also do you know about the secret BFG in that level? Because you have to grab it out of a fucking wall in a secret room, literally a secret nobody would find legit.

The intended method is to teleport to where the cyberdemon is using the central teleporter that opens as you reach the adjacent ledge the cyberdemon is placed on.

The way you are doing it is how speedrunners get the BFG.

[Azazel Bloodfucker]

Well that's the only way I knew how to get it lol, good to know there is a legit way to do it.

[Jello]

Yeah I feel like an idiot. It's one of those secrets I rediscover every time. And it makes sense if you don't know about it. Run past the Cyberdemon to the exit and you win! Oh wait, there's a shitload of Cacodemons. Which should make you back track, and hopefully notice that pillar is down (or up). And even if you just run away, if you fall in the lava pit there's a soulsphere right in front of the teleport, and if you're running back to the beginning of the level there's a rad suit.

For some I always end up with enough ammo and wiggle room to get by the Caco's and get to the exit without it. So yeah, another example of Perfect Hatred's level design.

The more I think about, the more I like it. I've realized I've been playing it wrong for years. When you start, there's imps and cacodemons facing you which activate, but before them are shotgunners with their backs turned to you. I've always shot them to get some shells to start with. But it would be more prudent to let them get hit by an imp, and start firing back. Some of the stray pellets might hit a cacodemon, which might hit an imp since they're firing downwards towards your position, and then the imps would fire back on the cacodemons. That initial fight could be quite a bit easier than I've made it just through infighting. The same with the Lost Souls nest, just wake one or two up, they'll start attacking, hitting each other, missing, hitting other Lost Souls, they should take most of themselves out instead.

[BluePineapple72]

Jello said:

Perfect Hatred.

Im drawing a picture of it, heh

[shotfan]

Doom 1: E2M7. It has just a perfect gameplay flow.

Doom 2:

valkiriforce said:

I'm gonna have to say Industrial Zone is another close favorite of mine - I still enjoy playing it to this day; and it's even more fun on co-op.

Seconding. You have groups of zombies, a Mancubi squadron hiding inside that retractable stone walls, snipers on high ground everywhere, lots of fights in enclosed spaces. There is also much height variation, giving an effective illusion of multi-story buildings. In addition, the map is big, but not tedious, because most of it is visible from the beginning, so you know how much do you have to do (and more reliably by just guessing through monster count) and can think forward about how you are going to progress. No wonder that it was made by Romero.

TNT: Map 20. Nice looking office section, as well as the canyon. And in general I like its length (probably the longest in TNT). But then again, I like long maps. It felt like a proper trek before that demonic spaceship (but I reckon you enter it only in map 25). More tiring than Industrial Zone, but I still remember it fondly.

[valkiriforce]

shotfan said:

TNT: Map 20. Nice looking office section, as well as the canyon. And in general I like its length (probably the longest in TNT). But then again, I like long maps. It felt like a proper trek before that demonic spaceship (but I reckon you enter it only in map 25). More tiring than Industrial Zone, but I still remember it fondly.

Coincidentally, I've been feeling more fascinated with MAP20 of TNT lately due to some speedrun attempts I've been making in Final Doom recently. I feel more appreciative toward it nowadays and just imagining how it must have looked and felt to Doom players back when it came out is a fascinating thought to me. Always liked that canyon section, too...it's a rather surreal experience.

[Joshua Schäferhund]

I'd say Deimos Lab and The Courtyard are more or less tied in my book for the same reasons.

[Pencil of Doom]

I love Revenants, so 100 000 Revenants.
Honorable mention to map 28 of the BD Starter Pack, Sacrificial Grounds due to how disturbing it is and it's atmosphere and the recent Infinite Revenants or 1 000 000 Revenants as Revenant100 calls it.

[Tolwyn]

Memento Mori 1, Map 15. "Karmacoma"
Especially in COOP mode.

I don't know why, it's just my favorite.

Also, favorite way to a secret level. ;)

[Spectre01]

Tolwyn said:

Memento Mori 1, Map 15. "Karmacoma"

Also, favorite way to a secret level. ;)

For some reason the windows to make the jump there become impassible for me after I free the monster horde with the Cyber. Maybe it's something with my port but I've always had to noclip to the secret exit after getting all the kills.

[scifista42]

^ Read the last bug listed here.