Doom 2 Map 15: Industrial Zone (Ultra)

The mental anguish continues as I move on to map 15 - Industrial Zone. Remember, this is Doom 2 we're talking about, so this industrial zone consists of plain, brown skyscrapers, lava rivers and elevators with no walls. Oh, Doom 2!

If I seem a little distracted on this one, it's because there were noises going on all around me in various parts of the house that made it seem like Ragnarok had arrived upstairs. Some form of evil calamity. Turns out my dog just went apeshit for no reason, and the kids started acting up. oh, also my wife strolled right in and started talking. So watch for that.

Doom 2 Map 14: The Inmost Dens (Ultra)

This one's a mumblefest, but the level itself is a little on the dull side anyway.

One of the lesser maps here, which is odd because the technical design and imaginative layout are great. It's just not that fun to play. Sorry about the mumbling on this one. I was in a situation that required I keep my voice down.

Doom 2 Map 13: Downtown (Ultra)

Downtown was perhaps my least favorite of all the Doom 2 maps, at least until my most recent play-through recorded below.

The hub\mini-quest, free-form nature of map 12: The Factory is mimicked here also, as the overworld is a go-anywhere outside environment, punctuated by various structures and secret side-doors, but the map really is quite linear. There are only perhaps 2 or 3 structures you can enter at will, whereas the bulk of your progress through this level is usually thanks to an unlocked door brought about by a previous switch, brought about by a key, brought about by killing a specific creature. About 80% of your progress here has to happen in a particular order, leaving the top 20% as trigger-free choke points and killboxes.

This map, like most Doom and Doom 2 maps, features its fair share of traps and secrets, but that isn't what gave me the most resistance.

The sheer volume of monsters and my severe lack of ammo, health and armor made this one a particularly tense play. To illustrate this a bit, I paused the game about 20 minutes in so that I could eat a chicken pot pie I had warming in the oven. Something went wrong with FRAPS and when I resumed recording, FRAPS overwrote my initial 20 mins. Even with 20 minutes shaved off my playthrough, this is a 37 minute video. That should indicate how much of a beast Downtown was to finish on Ultra-Violence difficulty.

Doom 2 Map 12: The Factory (Ultra)

Now it's time to play the excellently-designed, yet horribly-textured Doom 2 map, "The Factory". The level design here is fantastic, as it treats the outside area of the map as a hub, and the individual buildings are isolated mini-quests or puzzles in themselves. A classic example of why Doom's level design was superior and more fun to play than today's acutely-linear cut-scene festivals.

It's just unfortunate that the earth-based levels in Doom 2 all shared the worst skybox ever made. The various brick wall textures on display here just make everything worse.

I just may load this up in DDT10b and change the skybox and all the textures to a different theme...

It's worth explaning that the beginning of this video is filled with me complaining about the mouse clicks and weapon switching. Ignore that and enjoy the rest of it. Remember. this is a video of me playing Doom 2, so the word 'fuck' happens every 10 seconds or so.

Doom 2 Map 8: Tricks and Traps (Ultra)

This one was an absolute motherfucker. This is where I hit the Ultra-Violence brick wall.

Things started off well, I was conserving my scant supply of ammo and keeping on top of my health, all while dispatching monsters efficiently. Somewhere in the last 4 minutes of this video, though, everything kinda just goes to shit in 5 seconds. I forgot to save my progress up to that point, which of course backfired spectacularly when I triggered a room with about 30 imps and a Hell Knight inside. I didn't make it.

What really sucks is that for the rest of the attempts I made at this level, I could not win. No matter what configuration of health\armor\tactics I tried, I just couldn't get through it.

I actually came back to it several days after this and killed it in one sitting.

Doom 2 Map 7: Dead Simple (Ultra)

Simple? Yes. Easy? No.

If the raging Mancubus-festival inside the initial forecourt isn't doing it for you, the 8-or-so Baby Arachnatrons will get your finger plucking.

Doom2 Map6: The Crusher (Ultra)

Continuing the now successful video playthroughs of Doom 2, we move on to The Crusher, a personal favorite of mine. Much swearmouth in this one.

The Crusher mixes up its environments to great effect. The initial cramped gray room opens (via elevator) down into a vast space with a lot of verticality and the titular Crusher itself.

Another test - Doom2 map3 - Gantlet

Here's another one -- this time I ran my Doom2.wad through the GL Doom Legacy wrapper - it still works, surprisingly. Actually it still works if you don't try to enable any kind of hardware acceleration.

Doomplay Test 1

I've decided I'm going to play through all the Classic Doom  episodes and all the Doom 2 maps on Ultra-Violence setting. Yeah, it's probably going to get really old after the 30th video, but I'm doing it anyway because DOOM. I want an excuse to play through them again, AND YOU WILL WATCH ME DO IT,

Anyway, This is the first vidcap test and is taken from the Steam version of Doom2 The Master Levels... and it's in DosBox, so naturally it looks like shit. The quality is just the worst, and I'm sorry about that. Watch this.