Favorite places within IWAD maps

The start area of Human BBQ
The Blue Armor area of Inmost Dens--really detailed for an IWAD
The demonic writing area in The Spirit World
E1M2 start area--just gives a great sense of forboding
Mt. Pain's huge outdoor area was stunning to me
e4m1 start area--just creepy to me with the hanging meat and that sky
e4m4 the courtyard area
e4m8 the first courtyard

basically any area with dramatic lighting, high detail or lots of atmosphere

ChaingunnerX said:

I feel free here:
E1M8

^this place!

E1M1 in general is a great example, for reasons explained here:


http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/58509-the-design-of-e1m1/

The main outdoor area where you start in TNT map32.

i was going to embed these screenshots, but instead of struggling to get them in the right size, you can just click on the imgur album here:

http://imgur.com/a/Lkbed

they're taken in glorious Chocolate Doom for the full retro lo-res impact.

E1M6: this is the one level i didn't like when i was younger that has now become one of my favorite Doom levels. there's so much going on in this map, with all the traps and the interesting layout and the constant outdoor/indoor contrast. i'm convinced that this, and not E1M7 is the real masterpiece of the episode. anyway:

image 1 - the red key area at the beginning. i love how it lures you in with the giant slabs of tech wall and exploding barrels and then locks the door behind you. i definitely found it extremely intimidating the first time i played it.

image 2 - the blue door area. this part actually kind of freaks me out. it abruptly shifts moods, with the lower light level and the pipe wall with all those ceiling lights. makes me think of a gym, or some kind of place where the gnarlier experiments take place. it's interesting how it does this without much scary lighting or anything - it's just subtle.

image 3 - this is the infamous secret that leaves you stuck and having to skip ahead to another part of the map via a soulsphere pillar. i like how it abruptly opens to the outside with all those shotgun sergeants and then closes behind you in a weird tech wall texture. a lot about this map feels like it wasn't really repeated in the rest of Doom.

image 11 - this is the last exit area, where you get trapped in a tight room with a bunch of spectres and stuff. i love how the tech stuff totally takes over. it's probably my favorite exit area of Episode 1, though basically all the exits to Episode 1 levels are really really good.

E2M2 - this oddly angled light kind of signals an abrupt shift of the tone of the level from a cargo area into something much more bizarre and strange. the whole section this is part of is really cool. also it's funny to play the Doom alphas and still see this one part, with the odd lighting intact, already sketched out. it's obvious that this was a thing that was cultivated from the beginning, maybe having a larger significance in the plot.

E2M3 - i really just like this crazy-ass lift area, lol

E2M4 - this level is filled with memorable imagery, which is why it used to be my favorite. a lot of other people have mentioned the good parts, so i tried to capture the wall of scrolling faces as well as the exit with the blood walls you have to activate. the scrolling faces may not effect me in the same way they did when i was a kid, but i still really appreciate the feeling of this room.

E2M7 - i love how the yellow key abruptly drops down into this super techy space ship area, completely changing the theme of the map. i was always fascinated by this area, because it felt like it was from another game (and honestly i wanted more parts of Doom to look like that). it's funny to find out later that it was the very first area in the first level in the Doom alpha that they just decided to keep in.

E3M3 - this hallway is simple but great, esp because you can enter in through the dark spots into a different room. really creative and simple use of geometry and lighting that i still appreciate when people do in Doom maps today.

E3M4 - i dunno, i like how this part with all the tortured body textures hints at some kind of story you're not really seeing much of otherwise and that there's an entire area devoted to them.

E3M7 - this map is great in general, but i keep remembering this room where the lift lowers and the baron comes down. i guess just the use of empty space in the room, and how it's just you and a single baron always had a really strong effect on me.

i'll probably try and dig up some episode 4 and Doom 2 levels later.

If I had to point one place, it would be hard, but visually my favourite map is E3M6. The colours and the layout makes it the most beautiful in IWADS.

Can't be bothered to make screenies right now so I guess I'll fumble around with the written word for a bit:

Ella Guro already put it in her album, but I feel its worth mentioning again: opening the secret door on e3m6 after trudging through a long acid secret passage and looking out from a high vantage point at a large outdoor area at the end of E3M6 and feeling like I had really reached the outer limits of the game; a deep secret area, about as remote as they're gonna get.

The floor crusher trap on E2M4 near the end of the map in pipe passageway that felt like it was in the nether regions of the game: a remote, dangerous and atmospheric place in an Indiana Jones kind of way and another place that felt like it was deep in the depths of Doom. The only way out of the room, if you survived, was through a secret door.

At the soulsphere secret at the end of E2M4 looking at the exit (also in Ella Guro's album)

Looking down at the acid pit from the secret Computer Map on E1M7 after riding the pillar up (and the area where the pillar rises--that whole area in general--basically the whole map).

The room at the beginning of E3M4 with the snake floor, demons, pillars and barrels and the opposite room with the charcoal bridge in the blood area and the weird specter teleporter.

The exit area of E3M4 with its strange, steep ladders and hell-scraped walls.

The opening room of E2M7 with the small firewall room with cacodemon inside.

The false secret-exit room on E2M7 with its blood-stained-death-trap-descending-floor and its hell scorched walls. This place was hellbent on rending your flesh from your soul and entrapping it in hell forever.

The blood area where the plasma gun was found on a ledge in E3M7.

The starting room and the barrel room at the beginning of E3M8. These two areas set the tone for suspense with what was awaiting you in the final confrontation of the shareware episode of the game.

From Doom 2--up high in the castle where you can drop down and land on the pillar with cell packs on it (the one in the crackle chasm river thing) and most of the map in general.

Doom 2 - Map 09 "The Pit." The room with all the lifts that rise and fall at different timed intervals and you have to try and get from one side to the other. On the other side is the blue megarmor, and while the lifts are rising and falling you're also simultaneously battling shotgun guys and lost souls. Love that room, very fun.

If anyone knows of any other maps that do that please let me know.

E1M2: The stairway to the east. I love it. Great texturing, and it's exciting to see the outside of the building out of the windows. It actually feels like a real place.
E1M4: The large opening room. It just looks so grand and promising.
E1M7: The nukage bridge, a place where the map's interconnectedness really stands out, and it's a pretty grand place to boot.
E2M7: The starting cavern with its attempt at realistic shading, which definitely stands out. Also, the entire blue-floored "office complex" to the south.

MAP01: The shotgun secret. This a cute little outdoor area.
MAP29: The way the tiny starting room opens up into the giant cavern area.

There's something strange about that dark, twisting corridor in E1M6... I don't know what it was, but it always messed with my spatial sense. I took a lot away from that experience when I revisited Doom 10 years ago - Doom 2 was far more fresh in my mind so replaying the original gave me a lot more opportunities to get a surprise at how cleverly connected some of the maps were. This part really locked me into the iwad in a way that I can't describe.

Map29's central structure, herp derp.

That opening view of Map01 is one of the most underrated constructs in DooM canon.

"The room" of E3M7. Small yet the last teleport till the final showdown.



The back pool mentioned by Hellbent. Remote and desolate when viewed from distance and occupied by a lone demon.

The office area of Central Processing from TNT. And the silver hallways/area in E2M7. I think those are the coolest places in any Iwad ever.