So Zladko linked me to a doom map today. And words were just not enough to describe my reaction. Come along with me, won't you? Map is called Chamber of Dis, made by some heavy metaler or something. I would provide a hotlink, but he put a copy of doom2.wad in there which you aren't supposed to distribute and I am not a cyberlawyer so I don't understand how legalities work with hotlinking to places to pirate shit, soooooo... just google it.


This is the first image you are treated to when you start up. Three arachnotrons, oh they aren't so tough. Oh wait, there's like 12 more behind me. What a good idea. Grab your super shotgun, megasphere, and not-nearly-enough ammo in front of you and start circle-strafing, Doomguy.


But first... Is that a door? Seriously? He used that texture for a door? Just too loud! Especially when compared to the flat and mono-color all around it.


Here we see more of our arachnotron buddies; also dat face. You can actually strafe around them better and avoid most of the damage, but I was focusing on getting good screenshots. Also, you don't have the kind of firepower you need. A super shotgun and some dodging skills can take down one or two, but you just don't have enough ammo here. What gives, I tell ya. Oh well, let's go around the corner, maybe there's more ammo...


Oh hey, more arachnotrons. <3 Also lots of space we could decorate or god-forbid put powerups around.


And another silly door. Also mixing themes. Other one uses skulls, this uses moonbase style. Granted, id did it a few times, but they also had a lot more of the "demons corrupted the building somehow or something" theme going on in the rest of the level design. Anyways, what's this to the right of us?


It's a big dark room with a Spider Mastermind. Also there's a pain elemental back there, which means tons of lost souls to get in the way of my rockets and make me damage myself. Good thing they didn't give me rockets or I would be upset. Well they soon made mince-meat out of me. Nowhere to run when the front has big spider demon and behind has bunches of little ones. Let's start another game and go the other way this time.


This pit has acid all the way in it, and you can go down the hallway to get closer to the cyberdemon down there if you really want, but then you fall down an inescapable pit. Behind it is the only part of this map I really liked, but we'll come back to that in my next post I think, cause I forgot to get screenshots... Onward, Doomguy!


Here we find some guns guarded by about pinky demons and multiple archviles, not to mention our buddies with shotguns and chainguns. Ow. Also Archviles are a huge pain to fight when all you've got is a super shotgun and no cover to break Line-Of-Sight with them. So enjoy being on fire. Let's retreat back into the hall.


This part, man. Here's a power-up just out of reach. A classic Doom dilemma. But it's inaccessible because the map maker too many decorations around it. Gameplay-wise, bravo. I am still scratching my head wondering how to get that. Design-wise, why would you do that, it looks silly. :c


Also in this area we have brick walls, and just a minute ago our aesthetic was moonbase. :/


And then doors from hellish fortress aesthetic. Be careful when mixing themes like this. it looks goofy if done carelessly. ALSO LOOK AT HOW BIG THE DOORS ARE. AND THAT TEXTURE IS MEANT FOR DOORS 1/6 THAT SIZE. It just doesn't repeat well... Wait, is that a rocket launcher I see poking out there? IT IS! OH BOY SOME REAL FIREPOWER FOR THESE BIG NASTIES. OH GOD WHAT.


How many cyberdemons are in this picture? All released by grabbing a rocket launcher. Only 13 rockets though, as you can see. See if you can spot them all. Two are fairly obvious. Give up?
Here.



Rest in peace, Doomguy. ;_;7
One more thing. Let's go check out that arch-vile room again...


Really? Four of these jerks in one room? Also those chaingun guys, if one shoots you for more than a couple seconds you're taking tons of damage, and there's at least 3 of them in that room. That room is hell. I don't believe this. Honestly, the balancing on this map... It wouldn't be such a bad map if you got the weapons you needed for it.

This map isn't all bad. Honestly I haven't finished it, so maybe it gets really awesome later. But the difficulty is beyond challenging and into absurd. Maybe after I cool off I'll give it another shot and reveal what I liked about it. I already have one section in mind for that...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, GOD MODE THAT SHIT.

Sounds like a plan, man.


YEAH. CAN'T HURT ME NOW ARACHNOTRONS CAN YEH?


In the interest of saving time, here's a BFG while we're at it. NOW LET'S ROCK.


Something I didn't realize, this is a portal. I didn't realize it because you have to jump up to it. You can't jump in standard Doom, this is a part of the ZDoom/GZDoom frontend. He says that it's designed with ZDoom in mind, so whatever, just something I didn't try before, thought it was supposed to be a light-source or something. (Not a literal light-source mind you, that isn't how it works in doom. But like a lamp or something to make the world more 'real'.) But whatever, let's jump in.


Hey neat it takes us back to these jerks.


Doom is one of those few games where I can cheat my pants off and still have a blast. Still I believe map-makers should design with playing legitimately in mind. I cannot imagine playing this map without cheating. Especially now that I've played more of it and have seen the horrors...


Here's another thing we see because of this map requiring ZDoom. There is a little pit, (which used to have imps in it, but they appear to have exploded. Oh dear...), And something that irritated me a little at first, those are actually doors on the wall there. Which takes you to the tunnel you are about to see. Let's go via the acid trench on the right, which you barely can't see...


This is the secret area I mentioned before. I actually liked this section. Let's check it out.


Hey neat you can't hardly see it because it's so dark. Anyways there's some pits to leap over with power-ups galore. Awesome. Again, you can't have this sort of thing in a standard doom map. With ZDoom you can jump. And this requires jumping. If you do manage to fall into the pits, however, you're doomed. (Haha, doomed.)


Speaking of inescapable pits, here's another. This one baits you with precious shotgun shells. If you miss a step though, you will die. Again. How thoughtful~.


Recognize this room? I know I do. 3 Cyberdemons. I'm ready for you this time. But first let's check something out I missed before cause I was busy dying and running out of ammo.


Across from the rocket launcher that triggers the unleashing of the cyberdemons is a plasma rifle and a key! Let's just grab those an-*POOF*...


Hey they warped me into the room with the cyberdemons. And guess what, there's archviles up top. So you've got those jerks burning you and resurrecting little monsters, (I checked, they can't resurrect the Cyberdemons), and to top it off I miscounted cyberdemons. There's 4 in here. And you just warped into the middle of them. Stupendous.


After cleaning out the room and exploring, I happened to find a teleporter placed inconspicuously. Oh boy. Now I'm in the Demons' Disco Tunnels it would seem.


Oh look more arachnotrons and spider masterminds. I seriously lost count of Spider Masterminds. And those are a boss monster. And there's even more later. Absurd. Anyways, the lights in here constantly flicker at different frequencies. And every room looks alike. So after about 9 minutes of wandering around my eyes started to bleed. Oh and guess what...


No map to help you out either. Fantastic. If I recall correctly I made it out once and then accidentally found a teleporter... that throws you right back into the maze. Frustrated, I activated no-clipping mode and got out. And then I went back a set of doors that bothered me.


These doors would suggest to the average player that you would need a blue key to activate it, yes? Well take a look at my status bar. No blue key. I just walked through those doors. *grumble, grumble*


I wish I knew more about video editing/encoding/etc. because I would have done a video-review instead. And you could have seen this room in all its horror. Pain Elementals spitting out lost souls all over. Arch-Viles lighting me on fire. Cacodemons adding to the chaos. And 3 more Cyberdemons because the map-maker is some kind of sadist. Also the room is full of acid, so just standing hurts unless you manage to grab a rad suit. This room could have been more interesting - It was like a big elevator. And I missed the key for a while because it was hidden and could only be accessed when the elevator was at the lowest point; it made for an interesting bit of thinking on the part of "Why would he put me through all that?". Just tone down the ridiculous a little bit.


Well way back in that cool tunnel I liked, the walls actually open up with the blue key. At first it seems pointless, but then you can jump up to this hole. And on the other side you find...


More Arachnotrons and Spider Master-Minds. It just never ends man... Also damaging floors all over. Gimme a break.


Well I had been nearly everywhere I could think and still no yellow key, so I gave it to myself and decided to head into the only place left. Let's get ready to rock.


What? I expected to have the walls drop and to be horribly beaten beyond recognition the second I grabbed the Mega-Sphere, but I had to activate it manually. Go figure.


Either I had a missing effect or texture file, or the author was trying to have a "walking on sky" effect. Which I applaud - it was a neat idea. But when I can see where the skyline image repeats, it just looks silly. A for Effort.


Hey look more Cyberdemons. *Yawn* About this time I started hearing sounds that suggested an Icon of Sin was present and spawning monsters. Joy.


I followed the sounds to this ENORMOUS room. Here we see a repeated texture that hurts the eyes for being repeated that much. Tons of red, and yet another Spider Mastermind. Wait. What's that in the back?


THREE ARCHVILES JUST CHILLIN OUT IN FRONT OF A THING THAT SPAWNS MONSTERS. ARCHVILES CAN RESURRECT MONSTERS THAT ARE KILLED, INCLUDING ONES SPAWNED BY THE ICON OF SIN. IT JUST WON'T STOP. AAAAAH. Anyways, because I was a dirty cheater this time, I could destroy them with ease. But how to get up there. It turns out you can jump on those red pedestals back there. An interesting idea, not many map-makers will attempt platforming sections at all. But whatever, let's get up there.


Sweet, a yellow key. Wait I needed one to get in here. What.

At this point, I had no clue where to go. The Icon of Sin effect seemed to be just that, an effect. I Even with Noclipping effects I couldn't find the only part of the Icon of Sin that can actually take damage, (John Romero's Head on a Pike. The player isn't meant to see it without cheating, so the art guys thought it would be funny. Dem easter eggs man, dem easter eggs.), so I ran around the level with noclip on, searching for a switch or a panel to step on that would somehow end this level. But nope. I got nothin. So I gave up.

If I could say one thing to the author it would be this: "I have badmouthed this map a lot, but I saw a lot of cool features that I would like to see in another map, or a megaWad; keep it up, and keep up the Doom."