Game:

Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994)

Duration: 9:57

91 views

3

Hello again Doom fans. Hot off the presses of Doomworld, we have the newest A2Rob mapset to explore - a 10-level, MBF21-compatible WAD called Escape from Sunveil Starport. Rob worked on this wad during NaNoWadMo2023 and describes it as a prequel to their megawad Machete. Given my appreciation for the author's other works like the Running Late series plus a bunch of beautiful screenshots in the Doomworld thread, I got super excited and quickly made the decision to check it out. In terms of storyline we don't have much to go on since Rob keeps the intrigue short and...intriguing:

"I knew firing that nutjob was a bad omen. It started with the security systems going haywire, then the explosions outside, and finally there were those damned shrieks down the hallway. At some point one has to wonder whether the job's worth it or not. I made that decision a few hours ago."

It appears that our hero - perhaps in the role of security chief at some top secret military facility or something - once again needs to pick up his weapons and deal with trouble.

Basic info
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IWAD: doom2.wad
Difficulty: Ultra-Violence (aka Hard) (pistol start)
Map author: A2Rob
Music: "The Courtyard" by Deadwing
Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
Compatibility level: 21 (MBF21)
QoL mods: Colored Blood
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Additional notes
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With titles and themes like these, I'm struck by A2Rob's reverence to the OG levels. Perhaps "purist" is not the right word, but what is clear is that in their hands, the conceptual and aesthetic groundwork laid out by id is given an extremely fresh coat of paint, with truly modern action to boot. Here we have a liberal take on 'Toxin Refinery' where the aroma of Plutonic punishment will inevitably invade your senses. The runtime is objectively quite brief, but the level's conciseness is counterbalanced by devilish and vigorous traps. In my blind run I died without any right to appeal because I had no idea that I would have to face vile brothers without a rocket launcher and with flimsy health. This is sort of atypical for Rob, but stringent optimization of pathing becomes important: yellow to RL + blue keycard to red is possibly the most comfortable way of clearing the distillery. In the whole foul concoction, the secrets are invaluable and a crucial ingredient in prevailing - I recommend saving the rad suits for the baron + imp fight and the red keycard maze because taking sludge damage there is more or less unavoidable. Friggin' beautiful.

Secret 1: 2:49

Secret 2: 4:39

Links
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WAD:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/144155-escape-from-sunveil-starport-9ish-mbf21-compatible-maps-rc1/

QoL mods:

Colored Blood:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/118074-dsda-doom-source-port-v0243/?page=16

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