Punching Barons - Episode 72 - SPUNK
0Download Link - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/s-u/spunk
4/11/1994
Richard Smol
Editor: DEU 5.0
Doom Version: 1.2
This level stands out from most of the others we have seen, focusing more on being a massive kill-fest instead of the general progression idea. Shotgun Guys are thrown everywhere in the level, we get some extremely large hoards, and pretty much the goal here is to kill all of them. For simple carnage, this level works well. If you want a level with decent quality though, this is probably not what you are looking for, this is more of the fast-food killing variety that is good for quick satisfaction over being a good product.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this level is that it is designed for Deathmatch, which means we get the genericness that seems to preside in these, where we get so many interconnected ways while nothing really feels like part of a whole, but instead thrown together individual parts. Also note that this level stands out from pretty much every other level we have touched due to the fact that no exit actually exists, we are just expected to kill stuff and leave. While I am used to this type of level from stuff in Quake, it isn't exactly my cup of tea, I prefer having some sort of finalization or completion.
We also get at least one annoying secret that requires you to spam walls until you find the one revealing a hidden area. Definitely not nice if you are going for all the kills, since you will be left trying to find that last enemy due to the map throwing it in an area you would never look without deciding to spam everything.
Still, regardless of all its flaws, this is a fast-food level that serves its purpose, to kill a massive amount of shotgunners. I could imagine this working well with a lot of gore wads out there, these are the types of levels that shine with Doom since 3d tends to make it impossible to have hundreds of enemies on the screen at one time. It has a lot of flaws and isn't what I would consider representative of a good level, but you can't deny that it holds the most important part of Doom, fast-paced killing of giant hoards. Even though I wouldn't want this type of level in a more recent game, I think this is the type of level I would prefer in Doom. No annoying pushwalls (well, one, but since we cannot complete the level anyway we shouldn't focus on completionism but instead mass carnage), no frustrating mazes or puzzles, not even a lot of corridors. Just a quick level that allows for a lot of killing while offering plenty of challenge due to most of the enemies being hitscan based.
This level is extremely simplistic, but the simplistic nature works for a simplistic game such as Doom. I think if more PWADs were like this, I would have less problems with them generally. I think this captures exactly why I keep coming back to Doom and even bother with PWADs in the first place for a title that I say I don't prefer to later titles. With other games I want a world, I want immersion, and so the simplistic design of general Doom levels shows the limitations whereby they couldn't properly give me such immersion. By breaking that factor, instead focusing on being mindless combat instead of a corridor runner, I think I have found why I actually am willing to replay Doom constantly and have done videos for 72 Doom PWADs. I think this is what I am asking for, meaning it is nice to have a level I can look back at to remember exactly why I bother with Doom when we have to deal with some of the more frustrating examples. As I said, this level is far from perfect, but the total change of focus and impossibility of exiting the level might actually work entirely in its favor to create an arcade-like atmosphere where the entire point is just to massacre as much as you can. The reason I might like E3M6 is because that is the closest we get in the original game, a bunch of expansiveness where we can just blow things away, and this works in a similar method. It lacks all immersion and isn't a proper level in the fact that there is no focus on progression, but it is extremely entertaining since it focuses on what is appealing about Doom.
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