Phil's Infested Compound (PHILPLU.WAD)

PHIL'S INFESTED COMPOUND
by "Philnemba"

Phil's Infested Compound is an outtake from the Plutonia Revisited Community Project. Since the map didn't make the cut for the main event, Doomworld forum superstar Philnemba uploaded it as a standalone work. As one could guess, it's a remake of Plutonia's MAP17, "Compound", whose slot this map occupies. When playing Phil's offering, I got a very familiar feeling, similar to several other PRCP works. I've played a lot of maps since Plutonia, but this homage (more or less) brings me back. I'll mention a few of the references I recalled, but looking around there are more that completely escaped me.

The first thing that caught my attention was the room with the raised walkway, encountered early on in both works. In Plutonia, it was a #. A little tricky to maneuver on. Here, it's a big ol' swastika. It makes a lot of the chaingunners hard to take down with the SSG; you'll probably want to snipe away with the normal shotty until you can grab one of theirs. Another thing I mostly remembered was the section with a ton of imps and a few arch-viles. It's a mob fight, though I think the one in Plutonia was executed with teleporters. There are actually a few arch-viles to kick around this map; you'll want to take them out asap, like biting through a Tootsie pop to get to its chocolate center.

It's not a particularly hard map, with a few exceptions. The prevalence of damage floors isn't that harassing as there are enough enviro suits to get by unless you're strolling or something. There are two big fights you want to watch out for. The first has a revenant army backed by an arch-vile. Sure, you get a BFG right beforehand, but you probably won't be able to blitz through the skeletons without eating some mandatory rocket boots, and taking cover may end up wasting precious cell ammo. The other has two Cyberdemons in a pretty tight space. I didn't have a plasma rifle, so you're gonna have to make the best of whatever cell ammo you can find. Hopefully you're good at BFG bumping Cybies.

Phil's Infested Compound is pretty good fun and wouldn't be out of place among all the other maps found in Plutonia Revisited. The aesthetics are quite nice, with great usage of the PRCP textures. I think the strength of its homage is the main reason it failed to make the cut. It's a shame, but what can you do? I mean, besides download and play this map, which if you love the Hell out of Plutonia (or its various progeny) you should. Really, unless you detest the Casali style, it's worth experiencing (or, heh, re-experiencing).

EAT AT PHIL'S