TNT: Evilution (TNT.WAD)

As you likely know, TNT's Evilution began its existence as a freeware megaWAD developed by Team TNT, who had its origins in a certain Doom mailing list. A bunch of people poured their hearts and souls into the mapset, and just as it was supposed to be released, John Romero popped in, asking if id could buy it, to be published as a commercial work. TNT agreed; thus began a rigorous playtesting / polishing session that delayed the release of Evilution until after TNT put out their freeware sequel, the illustrious Icarus: Alien Vanguard. Nowadays you can find Evilution as part of the Final Doom package alongside The Plutonia Experiment (which is kind of a TNT project, in that the Casalis were members of Team TNT).

Evilution's story picks up after Doom II. The UAC, not willing to let sleeping demons lie after the Martian debacle, continues their gateway research on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter. Of course, they aren't THAT stupid, and have a full contingent of marines set up to annihilate anything that comes through the portal. Some monsters pop out, they're slaughtered, and life goes on. Later, an object assumed to be the supply ship (ahead of schedule) turns out to be a titanic, satanic vessel, which unleashes a torrent of Hellspawn that overruns the base and kills or turns its entire staff. You, the veteran commander, were conveniently absent, and set about to exacting your revenge on the teeming hordes.

As lamented by numerous Final Doom reviewers, Evilution has nothing new to bring to the table in terms of functional content. No new monsters, no new weapons; just some new textures and of course the kickin' rad soundtrack. There are some mapping tricks not native to Doom, of course, like see-through gates you can open and "glass" windows (and the infamous voodoo doll puzzle). Contemporary projects like Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay were more adventurous with producing special effects. When all's said and done, you have a megaWAD full of mostly tech levels with some outliers. Is the gameplay worth your cold, hard cash?

Doom connoisseurs may turn their nose up at TNT's workmanlike map quality or the lack of consistency between authors. They were amateurs, of course, who were just putting together a megaWAD for their peers to enjoy. Not to mention that the levels went under the knife so that they would play well on id's target computer; four more levels must have been made on the spot after four previous outings from the Casalis were axed (I wonder what happened to them...?). Evilution isn't bad. It's good. I don't think it's fantastic, and with the amount of freeware megaWADs out today, the $5 price tag (half of the $10 Final Doom sells for on Steam) may seem pretty steep. Still, I think it's worth the money, as it's practically the only Doom DLC you can buy. You're getting Plutonia with it, anyway.

EDIT 10/21/12: With the release of the Doom BFG Edition, Bethesda pulled some of the classics from individual release on Steam. This already happened to Master Levels for Doom II, which I noted awhile ago, but Final Doom is one of the BFG Edition casualties, only available now as a package deal with the id Software superpack. If you want it legitimately and don't want to buy nearly every other game id's had something of a hand in, you should take a visit to their official store.

EDIT 03/02/13: Well, time to eat crow. Bethesda restructured their Doom sales. Final Doom is available again (this happened a long time ago, I'm just very slow) for the low, low price of $5, so a lot of the hemming and hawing in the above paragraph seems silly in retrospect.

Reasons to avoid Evilution... TNT isn't as interesting as its sister WAD, Plutonia, in the encounter department. Sometimes you get a good stomper, but the monster count in many of the levels comes down to reams of zombies of all kinds (and imps, of course). In some maps, like "Steel Works", you're gleefully taking them on in hordes. In others, like "Metal", you come dangerously close to throwing something as you succumb to hitscanner attrition over and over again. It almost feels like Evilution got all the former humans that the Casalis purposefully kept out of their side project...

Perhaps the most infamous issue with Evilution is Dario Casali's MAP31, "Pharaoh". The yellow key is missing in single player as it's flagged for multiplayer. Enterprising speed runners know the tricks to bypass this gaffe (and thus a good chunk of the level) but those who wish to complete the map "legitimately" should download the fix (available here on the Doomed Speed Demos Archive) and run it on top of Evilution as a PWAD. TNT submitted a bugfixed version to id, of course (and before the product's official release), but they never got off their duffs to make it right, which is a shame.

Evilution has a load of bases, so it helps to be a tech aficionado. Things get a little more exotic toward the end with the obligatory Hell maps, but there are some welcome detours on the way. The secret levels, for one, play with Egyptian and "tropical" themes, and there are some underground / cavern based levels. Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Wormhole", the biggest conceptual departure from the rest of the mapset. I wouldn't grab Evilution just to play one particular level, but if I did, I hope it would be Halderman's ominous outing.

Team TNT was cool stuff back in the day. Currently, the need for a particular "crew" of authors gathered together under an identity has mostly vanished with the intimacy that the community has developed. Not to mention that TNT was basically a stable of community authors to begin with. Guys like Mustaine, Sieben and the Casalis had their hands in other projects (the immortal Memento Mori, for one). It's still neat to see a relatively stable group of authors band together for some consistency between releases, but I've never been put off by the many paradigms exhibited in the multi-author megaWADs that dominate the Doom landscape.

If you don't have Final Doom, what are you waiting for? Evilution may be a bit uneven, but no more so than its peers, and if you really find yourself loathing a level you can just idclev to the next (like most people do to "Habitat", apparently). There are still some neat sights and layouts worth seeing that a screenshot just can't communicate. Plus, people still make PWADs that use TNT and Plutonia for IWADs (admittedly more Plutonia than TNT). I wish, I wish... I wish someone would put together an Eternal Doom V. I'm currently looking forward to TNT2: Devilution.

TNT: EVILUTION
by Team TNT

System Control	MAP01
by Tom Mustaine
A small rewrite of "Entryway" in Mustaine's particular texturing idiom. There's a little more violence and a lot more tricksy stuff. The exit trap, for instance, is an elevator which lowers the player into the basement, exposing him to some hitscanner fire for a short while before he or she can retaliate. Very short and fun; see if you can spot all the borrowed hallmarks of MAP01.

MAP02	Human BBQ
by John Wakelin
	Nice theme setup. It's a jumble of different texture themes, with green marble popping up in between the various tech areas. The outer yard with its imp / commando watchtower in the center dominates the west side of the level. You'll spend far too much time running through this circuit if you grab all of the level's secrets. The true standout encounter is the secret area that houses the SSG. Sure, you could just fire your shotgun at the monsters forever, but Wakelin has a decent alternative method prepared.

Power Control	MAP03
by Robin Patenall and John Minadeo
Another straight techbase map, mostly in green, featuring some nice, round buildings as a recurring theme. The most memorable area is the large, outer yard with the four cells in the intermediate directions, undoubtedly the “power control” section itself. It's choked with monsters which between the little cells, the free roamers, and the overlooks, you'll find yourself surprised several times.

MAP04	Wormhole
by Ty Halderman
	Halderman's "Wormhole" harbors a dark secret, amplified by the now famous music track. The base is a little rough at first, like that chaingun ambush, but if you're observant, you may pass by the other world entirely. Once you make it to the back, you're liable to stumble upon the wormhole to a strange reality where the monsters you've fought lie dead and the halls are thick with new, tougher blood. If you don't know about the hidden goodies, you're liable to quickly run out of ammo, which may make the final room incredibly awkward. The best part – running to the exit switch in the dark world and finding yourself back in the light.

Hanger	MAP05
by Jim Dethlefsen
Nice techbase map with a ton of monster closets; you have to be on the watch constantly. The different wings of the level are tied together by an overlapping bundle of staircases which contrasts directly with the large, outdoor courtyard to the east (with a toggleable shield) and the mysterious, Hellish temple to the north, which has my standout encounter – a pair of barons that instill a false sense of security so that the revenants can surprise you afterward. I really like the look of that main control room, the one with the power windows.

MAP06	Open Season
by Jimmy Sieben and Ty Halderman
	Another small base that has nonetheless a lot of foot traffic. It's dark and somewhat dangerous, between all the hitscanners lurking around and that catwalk where you fight cacodemons in the major machinery room. The only problem is how much running you do around the reactor area and how little action there is once you've cleared out the initial forces, particularly once you go back and hit the red key switch (and then run back to the door it opens). Still, I liked it.

Prison	MAP07
by Andrew Dowswell
Dowswell steps the difficulty up with this scrappy, semi-open level. Starts out with a congested firefight in a steel box before exposing you to enemies on all fronts. The most dangerous encounter is thankfully defanged through an invulnerability secret – it's a crossfire of imps and barons that you can completely ignore if all you want is the key. The eastern area has a few sneaky enemy reveals before a dangerous column run. It's a very plain looking map, but with all the fighting, you'll hardly have time to notice.

MAP08	Metal
by John Minadeo
	A large base in mostly dark metal that always feels short on the health, due to a massive amount of zombies. The nastiest bit by far is the large, octagonal room with tiered ledges running clockwise. If you don't nab the blur sphere immediately prior, you'll find yourself soaking a lot of bullets. As far as a short shock, my favorite surprise is a very efficient teleport of a handful of spectres into the northernmost room, bound to put a ton of pressure on the player. Also dig that cool supported staircase transitioning from the catacombs to the main hall. Otherwise, it's pretty grueling.

Stronghold	MAP09
by Jimmy Sieben
This is a hard, large base level fielding nearly 300 monsters, all of which come from the core five of Doom II – troopers, sergeants, commandos, imps and demons. It's difficult because it's so full of hitscanners. You're never in danger of running out of ammo; health is a different story. One of the most dangerous traps is a hallway which features nine little coffins sporting imps backed by commandos which will keep you holed up in a little room while monsters on the adjacent staircase plink away at you. There's also the teleport ambush triggered upon walking into the warehouse, which may have you cursing through your teeth at the sheer incoming number of enemies.

MAP10	Redemption
by Tom Mustaine
	A simple, pleasing techbase from Mustaine. Aesthetic style is much like his "System Control" (or his various other bases), with a lot of outdoor action. It's pretty trappy with walls of monsters opening up as early as the first major room. Standout encounter is definitely the northern area, which has two revenants, two pain elementals, and two arachnotrons in a tight space; you have to dart and grab the plasma rifle and then fight your way to ammo. The sequence is topped off with a nice teleport ambush (albeit pretty ineffective with all that plasma ammo you just grabbed).

Storage Facility	MAP11
by Dean Johnson
Johnson's base has a large outer area with a few small buildings and one major section, a three-dimensional crate maze split into three sections. I like the base touches, like the toxic storage, or the guard tower where you can grab a computer map. The crate area has most of the action, where bunches of monsters teleport into the labyrinth at certain spots. They're easily contained and you're in no danger of running out of ammo. Not sure if there's really a standout encounter; probably the darkened crate room, where finding the light amp goggles is a life saver.

MAP12	Crater
by Jim Lowell
	Techbase built into the side of a crater, which you'll have to explore. I was expecting some more action inside the level's namesake, but you play with what you have. There are some striking visual sections, like the secret side area that connects the exit to the main sewers (great visuals!) and the backlit tech corridors where all you can see are the silhouettes of your enemies. Standout encounter for me was the baron / mancubus / arachnotron room; you'll know it when you find it.

Nukage Facility	MAP13
by Brian Kidby and Ty Halderman
It's a base with some gratuitous nukage set into the side of a canyon. One of the neat features is the use of defensive shutters, which give the fortifications a bit of character. Some potentially deadly firefights, though the penultimate room with the silver toxic waste vats (well, presumably that's what's inside) takes the cake as the monsters you wake up on one side are liable to sneak up on you while you're dealing with the others. The most memorable feature for other players is probably the Cyberdemon, who arrives in the base interior and truth be told isn't much of a threat unless you want to pick a fight.

MAP14	Steel Works
by Robin Patenall
	A really easy but fun zombie slaughter. Patenell makes the most of the space given; you walk a big loop through the steel works until you grab the red key, needed for the exit, on the balcony, after which you unleash even more monsters into the area you just fought through, all the while anticipating a Spiderdemon showdown. Very nice. I like the machinery, especially the huge presses, though the blood crushers to the north are probably the best-looking features. Standout encounter, I would say running back through the pole room with the lights turned out, trying to maximize your rad suit time.

Dead Zone	MAP15
by William D. Whitaker
One of those levels that starts out firing on all cylinders and doesn't really let up until the end. It's one large installation, kind of an island, with a bunch of monsters running around both inside and on the outside. You have to watch your back constantly with enemies coming at you from every angle, especially if you trigger the teleporter rush from near the level's center. It's hard to separate the different combat setups from each other as you're usually running back and forth between them, but that mob of enemies, topped off with an arch-vile, is the most memorable moment.

MAP31	Pharaoh
by Dario Casali
	Dario unleashes an evocative masterpiece quite unlike the rest of his Doom career, which greatly benefits from the now classic intermission track. I was starting to wonder where all the ammo was before I remembered the drop boxes at the entrance. It's safe to say I feel like a horse's ass. The pyramid's main hall looks sweet and the the eastern annex, accessed by two different teleporters, has a great series of encounters, but the real standout is the floating Cyberdemon that guards the end once you return with the red key. The storm of sergeants after you grab the megasphere...not so impressive. I also gotta thumbs up the exit scenery, with a fairly guileless secret ending.

Caribbean	MAP32
by Dario Casali
Dario creates a new level paradigm with this stab at a more tropical style. It's no Duke Caribbean, but the wooden lodges adrift in the ocean have a certain undeniable aesthetic and a layout Casali abuses for one big firefight at roughly the halfway point, which is one of a series of memorable encounters. The level is heavy with mancubuses and revenants and a few tricky arch-viles. I really like the finale, with a Cyberdemon just ripe for infighting abuse as he's in the thick of a bunch of toughs, but all those ambushes in the larger southern building are just as if not more exciting. Also a timed switch exit which is liable to stymie slower players.

MAP16	Deepest Reaches
by Andre Arsenault
	A complicated cavern-based level with some great visuals that darts in and out of the underground. I like Arsenault's tricks, like the red key puzzle which ends with grabbing it from behind the cross without actually seeing it, or the exit stairwell. A secret makes it possible to snatch the yellow key from the red rock area before even seeing the blue key, which is a neat shortcut. Standout encounter is probably the western beige brick area, which puts the player in a dangerous crossfire with hitscanners and a few rougher monsters and then throws a few revenants onto the ground floor.

Processing Station	MAP17
by Tom Mustaine
Mustaine's last TNT level has what should be by now a pretty familiar texture scheme. The play is all different, though. Rather than subject you to a ton of traps, you end up waking all the demons at basically the same time. Most of my deaths came from commandos that snuck up on me, so it's a pretty harrowing map. The base does look fittingly like some kind of admin building, with the in-house gardens and neat fountain section. Standout encounter is the northernmost room, where one sole mancubus keeps the hordes of Hell from spilling forth.

MAP18	Mill
by Dario Casali and Ty Halderman
	Another large level from Dario in something of a factory theme. It's packed with some rough monsters. The SSG will be your weapon of choice for much of the map, at least until you snag the rocket launcher. Some imaginative bits include that blue and silver tech area to the southwest (cool puzzle sequence) and the northern slaughter area, where aerial monsters pour out of the chutes while the land-bound enemies teleport in. The arachnotron area to the east is less impressive, though it comes with a deadly arch-vile duel you'll be hard-pressed to survive. Fun, but tough.

Shipping/Respawning	MAP19
by Ty Halderman
Another large techbase with very distinct areas, like the teleporter control room to the west, the massive warehouse to the east, and the warehouse dock / outside area to the northeast. It's mostly zombies and imps with the occasional injection of heavy hitters, like the pain elemental in the inaccessible tunnel at the top of the hill. Standout encounter, though it's hardly what I'd call dangerous, is the monster manufacturing machine, which warps in a constant stream of enemies that are nonetheless tethered to their little stands.

MAP20	Central Processing
by Drake O'Brien
	This spacious offering from O'Brien is part techbase, part sewers, and part enormous canyon. The last is perhaps the most notable feature of the level, as it comes with a navigation puzzle based on a few teleporters and leaping from tier to tier (and finding the openings in the chain link fence). With all the walking you'll be doing, though, it isn't that interesting. The base, with its office cubicles and up-close firefights, is much more exciting, if a bit frustrating with sections like the hitscanner sandwich in the armory.

Administration Center	MAP21
by Drake O'Brien
An interesting layout; four rooms in the corners of a grid with a large center the player returns to, with the rest of the level crammed in the center's corners Wolf3D-style (well, much more appealing). Then, of course, there's a huge outdoor portion for the final segment, complete with monster warp spots and a cyberdemon. The enormous, green keep has a very distinct look, though it may not be apparent with the lighting. I also like the somewhat abstract southwestern room in the building complex, which has those odd tiered platforms. Standout encounter will probably be dealing with that huge mess of hell knights stomping around in the atrium, which wouldn't be so bad if the water wasn't poison.

MAP22	Habitat
by Christopher Buteau
	Certainly one of the most distinct levels of Evilution, though not one of the most popular. "Habitat" is an odd duck with those cool pop-open doors in the sewer piping and that great sequence where the nukage overflows into an opened hatch. It's also kind of rough, with reams of shotgun guys patrolling the aqueducts and several tricky arch-vile fights. Certainly, I commend Buteau's imagination for adventure, if not his ability to make something more action-oriented. Slaying single-file zombimen isn't exactly what I'd call a good time.

Lunar Mining Project	MAP23
by Paul Turnbull
Comparatively short and rowdy techbase map with some freedom of choice. It's a semi-realistic layout with crew quarters, a mess hall, and then the mining area itself, which is a short mess of caverns before the man-made area to the northwest. The new textures are refreshing, even though they tile weirdly. Standout encounter for me is the drop into the northeastern cavern section, which I messed up as I forgot to enter the red key area to grab the SSG and rocket launcher. It would still be a bit tricky, though most of your damage will come from the zombies that populate the base. Cool exit archway.

MAP24	Quarry
by Dean Johnson
	Unusually short cavern-based level. Starts out in cherry red underground and moves to a cavern network that's chock full of monsters before breaking out into the open quarry pit, dangerous lined with hitscanners in awkward places. Closest thing to a standout encounter is the room with the spectres and a hell knight; the barrels and monsters make for dangerous maneuvering.

Baron's Den	MAP25
by David "Mentzer" Hill
Another underground map. This one consists of a bunch of irregularly shaped (usually circular) rooms connected by narrow, curved hallways. It's a bit nonlinear; you can explore the caverns in the direction of your choice, coming across weapons and ammo depending on the order you tackle your adversaries. While there are a few tricky fights, the best are situated in the eastern area, with two cacodemons and a pain elemental boiling out of the gorge followed by the southeastern section, whose dueling revenants prove to be incredibly dangerous as you're liable to lose track of the rockets while looking after the other monsters. Though plain, it's pretty fun.

MAP26	Ballistyx
by Mark Snell and Jim Lowell
	This is a really cool Hell / subterranean map that's semi-exploratory and has some neat firefights. You start out at the font of a marble temple and quickly find yourself descending to the very depths of Hell. I don't quite mind the tunnels so much (though the switchbacks with spectres does wear a bit thin). My favorite bits are the northern room with all the imp / demon cubbies that keep opening up and the teleport to the cage with the rocket launcher that turns into a bit of a shooting gallery, where you have to act fast and prioritize your targets. Great fun, and a neat exit section.

Mount Pain	MAP27
by Drake O'Brien
The enormous "Mount Pain" has a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of bullets to dodge. The feature from which it derives its name lies well outside the playable area, though a crop of lost souls trickles down to the moat, one of the map's more tricky areas, to say nothing of the beginning hall, where you are particularly vulnerable to sergeants and imps and commandos. The cobwebbed spiral to the north I don't care for so much, nor the construction of the keep which sits in the lake of fire. The final room is decent, though, with two pillars of monsters you have to clear to get to the end. There's a huge teleporter ambush with tons of revenants in there (the "destruction zone") but I somehow mistimed it during this playthrough.

MAP28	Heck
by Milo Casali
	A nice Casali map, Hell / "Spirit World" themed, that has a few hard knocks. From the opening revenant crossfire, you know you're in for a treat. After you grab your weapons you can go east, west or south, in any order you like. The west is a marble maze a la "The Courtyard"; the south has a few skeleton ambushes and a pit full of lost souls and demons. The east, the coolest section, has the level's highlight, a stygian abyss with imps and pain elementals that rise out of the large obelisks, and if you feel like triggering it, another force of revenants and a mancubus. Good stuff.

River Styx	MAP29
by Jimmy Sieben
Probably my favorite map from Evilution. Starts out with a nice trip down an underground river of blood – perhaps the eponymous feature – before you arrive at a green temple with catwalks raised over molten lava (that are nonetheless harmless). The cells of rooms to the west are very evocative, with a surprise Spiderdemon fight that may catch you off-guard (but is pretty easily handled). The most dangerous areas are semi-secret but award you tons of ammo, which you'll need, because Sieben didn't include a plasma rifle on the level on UV. What gives, man? That makes the end of level teleport ambush pretty tricky to clear. Still, very cool level.

MAP30	Last Call
by Jimmy Sieben
	The platform puzzle is incongruous compared to what came before, though the solution is given in the opening room. It's still an interesting touch that helps to set the rest of the level up as something other than a pure IOS map. The rest of the fights leading up to the big one are active enough and while the beige brick area is pretty plain, the rest of the segments are visually quite nice like the marble bridge through the red ether or the boss room itself. A nice finale.

T-N-T
DYNO-MITE

This project is part of a series on id's

ICONS OF SIN
Doom		Heretic
(Thy Flesh Consumed)		(Shadow of the Serpent Riders)
Doom II		Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Master Levels for Doom II		(Deathkings of the Dark Citadel)
Final Doom		Chex Quest
TNT: Evilution	The Plutonia Experiment	Strife: Quest for the Sigil
Console Doom		The Wraith Corp MegaWADs
Doom 64		Perdition's Gate	Hell to Pay
No Rest For the Living		HACX