Game:

Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994)

Duration: 15:14

144 views

6

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: "Skycrapers in Void" 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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Welp, this whole demonic mess better come with a raise and better working conditions. Rob continues their exploration of creative action configurations with this - an aesthetically eclectic, not-quite-techbase level where there will be fights with you in the cage and the monsters outside, hitting you from all directions. I must admit that I am not a big fan of movement-limiting set pieces of this sort - more so when I believe that movement is one of the cores of the Doom experience - but I'll go through the motions. At first I was quite confused about what to do, before realizing that you must return to the cage after every key pickup and repel the assault in order for the relevant colored doors to open. Maybe I'm just dumb but I think this way of progressing is unintuitive to put it mildly. Another issue is that the title is overselling the premise, as most of the violence is going to happen in between your best impressions of a cornered zoo animal and not during them. The exception is the eruption of brutality at the end, when you'll be able to cut through a lot of beefy baddies with the BFG and a super welcome invuln. My advice is to save the hidden supercharge for the second round against the cacos and do your best to tracer tag the arch-viles and the mama while in milk vision in round three. 'Cage Match' is OK: it's a good, occasionally fun map; but one that's a bit of a downer for a mapper of A2Rob's caliber.

P.S. The intermission text is delicious - it encapsulates the cruelty, banality, and boredom of the workplace so well and in such a biting manner.

Secret 1: 5:00

Secret 2: 8:35

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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