Doom Map Talk #16:Halls Of The Damned, Spawning Vats, Tower Of Babel

Channel:

Andrew Mullens

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916

Published on May 26, 2023 4:40:05 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns57ROo-nKQ

Game:

Doom (1993)

Duration: 15:55

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It's time, to finish episode 2. Hell's influence is everywhere but none of the 27 maps of the original 1993 release of Doom give me a sense of dread or fear like E2M6.. "Halls of the Damned". This map gaves me nightmares as a kid back in 1996 and it STILL un-nerves me, We're in a large labyrinth which according to the Doom wiki is based on the Cheyenne military base.

What hits first is the track "Sinister", This bobby prince track is based upon James Horner's "Going after Newt" from Aliens, this track gives a unease that never lets up as we see the floor lower, walls open and the darkness lit up only by some placed torches, thankfully we can find several light amplification visors which on GZDoom turn the screen green while on DosBox its just increasing the contrast of the map.

There's so many trap walls that Halls of the Damned doesn't really get me anymore but on ultra-violence it could be your death as several barons of hell are waiting, Unique to this map is a fake exit which has not fooled me since my first death to it back in the early 2000's.

Following from that is "Spawning Vats", This penultimate level appears to be a UAC facility fully corrupted by hellish influence set to "Waltz of the Demons", not as nerve racking as Halls of the Damned, this map can still bite you. I had to do some dancing to get past those pinkies and getting trapped is certain death. One of the largest maps in Doom, Spawning Vats has a wealth of ammo and items which are mandatory to get through pistol start.

Spawning Vat's a example where it pays to also use the berserk pack as often as possible when pistol starting like I did in Halls of the Damned, Usually I don't like punching barons of hell but with a invul going, I pounded that piece of shit to bits. The hanging corpses from a open sky still fascinates me as one of Doom's more notable bugs.

Finally, we arrive at "Tower of Babel", a tower according to the bible that man built to reach towards heaven but here? That tower leads to hell. This boss map features a lot of lost souls and the Cyberdemon. The cyberdemon scared the actual FUCK out of me back in the past hearing its bovine roar and the thud of its steel boot, and the track playing which is "Nobody Told Me About I.D." further adds to the atmosphere.

Usually I carry weapons over but unlike in Phobos Anomaly, I decided to do it the old fashioned way and rocket duel the Cyberdemon which can take effort and is hazardous if you don't watch the lost souls carefully. Depending on RNG it only takes a quarter of the rocket boxes in the map but on Ultra-Violence it pretty much takes me every rocket to bring it down. The final episode of the original release awaits another day...Inferno. And then? "Thy Flesh Consumed" the Ultimate Doom Episode.

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