TITAN MANOR
by Jim Flynn
by Jim Flynn
Jim Flynn has a grand total of two submissions in id's Master Levels for Doom II. They compose the beginning of his Titan series, a set of maps occurring on Saturn's moon. In Titan Manor, a MAP01 replacement, the marine is sent to an alien building on Titan with the intent of recovering some highly-advanced technology, with which the Federation (the nebulous organization for which the marine works) expects to make incredible scientific advancements. It's a smaller map than Flynn's usual fare, and has unprecedented unity in texturing themes, I'm guessing a product of working with id.
The layout is pretty simple on its face. There's a large, rectangular perimeter within which all action in the map takes place. The top of the outer wall is staffed by arachnotrons and mancubuses, making any movement outside a dicey proposition, while an assortment of demons and cacodemons wandering in the moat (as well as the occasional arachnotron) block movement. The exterior is pitch black, making most monsters impossible to see until they fire upon you. Near the end of the map, this situation changes, but until then it's much safer to stay within the manor.
There are two structures within the map's borders. The one you begin in is a circular building in a green marble and wooden style. It's like a small temple, in the center of which is housed a BFG, presumably the alien technology you've been sent to obtain. You may end up returning here during the evolution of the map, but as far as I know, solving its puzzle (and grabbing the BFG) is not necessary in order to exit. I don't know precisely when it becomes solvable, either. Possibly when you turn the exterior lights on, somewhat near the end (after grabbing the red key).
Really, most of the true challenge in the map lies in unraveling the mystery of the manor itself. It's got maybe 11 individual rooms but you'll be running all over the place trying to grab the three keys needed to exit. They're all much in the same style, wood and marble, with some brown brick to help break things up. There's several distinct sections, including a storage room, library with fireplace, stables, bedroom, a large foyer, and the central marble room, dominated by a ziggurat which houses the blue key.
You'll need your wits to complete the challenge of the manor. There's plenty of switch chasing to be had on top of some mandatory secrets (a staple of Flynn's and really just his way of showing how much farther he goes to challenge the player intellectually). One of the more confusing multi-element puzzles includes the solution to getting the blue key. There's a few moving parts, some of which have several uses within the level. Their multi-purpose nature is often obscured by the immediate benefit afforded to the player.
None of the demonic encounters within the base are all that memorable, except for perhaps the chute full of cacodemons or one particular trap inside the storage area. Most of the difficult action is relegated to the moat that surrounds the manor, a lot of which you can mitigate by switching the lights on in the later portion of the map's action. As with most of his works, I'd say Flynn succeeds in making the environment itself the most interesting antagonist the player encounters, and I mean that in the best way possible. He even succeeds in integrating many of the map's 99 monsters into the level's structure. The wandering monsters within the moat become part of the moat, and the monsters patrolling the map's outer rim become part of the unscalable wall.
If you prefer lots of run and gun action in your Doom maps, I'd stay away from Titan Manor. Its exterior environment betrays preconceived notions of large, open-air areas, with most of the map's interior action being nothing worth writing home about. It's a great Master Level, though, and worth a play. Flynn's gentle guidance under id has rendered a work with his characteristic playstyle that is also aesthetically pleasing. I find that his accomplishment in Titan Manor is nothing less than an achievement, provided in a bite-sized portion (comparatively speaking).
WHAT A TERRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE
This post is part of a series on
id's Master Levels for Doom II
id's Master Levels for Doom II
| ATTACK | BLACKTWR | BLOODSEA | CANYON |
| CATWALK | COMBINE | FISTULA | GARRISON |
| GERYON | MANOR | MEPHISTO | MINOS |
| NESSUS | PARADOX | SUBSPACE | SUBTERRA |
| TEETH | TTRAP | VESPERAS | VIRGIL |
This post is part of a series on
Jim Flynn's Titan series
Jim Flynn's Titan series
| Titan Manor | Trapped on Titan |
| Mines of Titan | Titan Anomaly |
| The Farside of Titan | Trouble on Titan |
This is a really tactful review. My own assessment is that this map sucks the grand potato.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, there is something about complicated, gimmicky levels where you keep running round the same rooms which brings my piss to a boil. I suppose that's why I don't like the Tomb Raider games, even though the original at least felt like it should have been a classic. (It is a classic, just not to me.)
I'm not being obnoxious here, by all means let there be puzzle maps, they're just not what I want to play. I would imagine that fans of Eternal Doom would probably enjoy Titan Manor.
Titan Manor is an absolute Rubik's cube of a level. Completing it requires time, patience, and the desire to shift your own gear so that you're willing to engage it. To the outside observer, it may look like a complete waste of time. As Mike Nelson once riffed, "This movie is like playing Doom when there are no monsters or opponents!" There's something there, though, that I find myself irresistibly drawn to. Considering that I've played my fair share of Sierra adventure games, I'm not surprised at my own level of tolerance. Once I hit that brick wall, I'm switched on to a completely different thought process. Monsters act as agents of the level designer but are completely fallible, predictable elements, and there are tricks to combating and trivializing every one. The very substance of the level is a different matter. You can't con it into revealing anything that the author didn't want you to see; the best designers of puzzle play leave bread crumbs that seem obscure at first glance but become obvious once you root them out. This style of gameplay appears to run counter to the very essence of Doom, but it's just another facet of a rich and limitless experience.
DeletePerhaps the most memorable of all the Master Levels, I never even noticed that there weren't that many interesting engagements. The Rubik's cube had me completely mesmerized. Even on second playthrough with my brother watching, I had some trouble solving the puzzles, even though I had completed this the previous day. "Trapped on Titan" was brilliant too.
ReplyDelete-MT2
one of these days i will probably go back and replay all of flynn's levels, maybe in -nomo. it's been awhile, and they're so fun to figure out.
DeleteYour site is brilliant and has turned me on to many maps I probably wouldn't have found otherwise. Now then:
Delete'Titan Manor is an absolute Rubik's cube of a level. Completing it requires time, patience, and the desire to shift your own gear so that you're willing to engage it. To the outside observer, it may look like a complete waste of time. As Mike Nelson once riffed, "This movie is like playing Doom when there are no monsters or opponents!" There's something there, though, that I find myself irresistibly drawn to. Considering that I've played my fair share of Sierra adventure games, I'm not surprised at my own level of tolerance. Once I hit that brick wall, I'm switched on to a completely different thought process. Monsters act as agents of the level designer but are completely fallible, predictable elements, and there are tricks to combating and trivializing every one. The very substance of the level is a different matter. You can't con it into revealing anything that the author didn't want you to see; the best designers of puzzle play leave bread crumbs that seem obscure at first glance but become obvious once you root them out. This style of gameplay appears to run counter to the very essence of Doom, but it's just another facet of a rich and limitless experience'
I find this paragraph a much more interesting read than the review itself. You talk about Flynn's mapping style often switching you on '... to a completely different thought process.' Your spoiler heavy, room by room analysis approach to reviewing is often as rote as many of the levels I have played. I would love to see more reviews done in the style of the comment quoted: more abstract and opinion lead. Perhaps this could be achieved by trying to tap into that thought process you enter during the process of completing a map such as this one.
I hope my comment reaches you, as I appreciate this is an old review. Thanks once again for the pleasure of exploring your website.
for those not in the know - blogger has an interface for paging through comments left on the blog, with the most recent comments appearing first. additionally, i receive an email every time a comment is posted to my blog. i can't help but see every posted comment, though whether i reply is another story.
Deletereviews written like that comment are more subject to my passions with the metaphysics of doom and while such commentary is always knocking around in my head, i often decide that they are not as appropriate in a PWAD review and have often doubted whether there is any sort of audience for it, though i have been thinking about writing some more general posts about - i'll once again say - the metaphysics of doom. one of the biggest exceptions that i can think of was my review of BAUHAUS (http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2014/12/b-s-bahauswad.html), which you may or may not have read already.
Thanks for the link. I would be interested in an opinion piece like you have thought about, for sure. Running the site, I'm sure you have a more experienced notion of what your readers may or may not wish to spend their time reading, but anyone who has purposefully sought out a site like this and continues to frequent it regularly would perhaps find pieces showcasing some of your more imaginative insights enjoyable. Speaking generally, I tend to browse your articles liberally, reading the first paragraph or so of a piece and using your well shot screenies to choose a level to play. Once I have completed the level in question, I'll then read your review more closely, and more often than not find your dialogue with other readers the highlight for reasons described in my previous post. I mention this to encourage you that if I am not alone in the way I browse your site then I believe that others would definitely be interested in something about the 'metaphysics of Doom'. Thanks again.
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