[Doom] UNDER.WAD - E2M1 UV Max, NM Speed, NM 100%S

[Doom] UNDER.WAD - E2M1 UV Max, NM Speed, NM 100%S

Author: Mark Matheson
Date: 30th August 1994
Map: e2m1
Category: UV Maxdemo, NM Speed, NM 100% Secrets
Time: 3:33 (UV Max), 1:16 (NM Speed), 1:59 (NM100S)

A sewer level. Groan. Although that said, this is not bad for the genre. The level has a nice distinctive look, brown and rusty and metallic rather than the damp green most sewer levels go for. It's dark, but not too dark. I also like the oversized layout. The standard sewer map features cramped layouts with lots of blind corners and spaghetti passageways, but here everything's simple and widely spaced out. Not by any means a realistic sewer, but one that's much more fun to run through, which should always be the priority. There is one corner of the map where you're running through a huge grid of passages and pillars, but even this is set up to not confuse the player. And with almost no monsters to hunt down there's no chance you're going to lose your way here. Finally I think the ending's pretty neat. After splashing through the sewers and hunting imps and demons in dark passages you find yourself at the base of an enormous stairway up into the bright outdoors and freedom. It's always good when authors let their let their chosen setting give them design ideas.

So with everything in this level the way I like it I tried to put a little more work into getting a good time here. The run went pretty well, no big errors anywhere. Wandering monsters are an occasional problem but not so much I had to worry about counting every kill, so in practice this was a pretty mindless runaround. Maybe you'd like a tougher challenge in which case this level is not for you, but if all you want are five minutes of running and aiming practice this level's as good as any.

It's also a pretty good nightmare challenge. The difficulty level does go up significantly with the high number of sargeants around. And while there are plenty of powerups around they're scattered all throughout the level, it's not like you can run to a particular secret and it's easy street after that. You've got to be alert and fast from start to finish. I initially just recorded a nightmare speed demo, but 100% secrets also looked possible so I went for that as well and I think that may actually be the better run.