Frozen Time (FROZENT.WAD)

FROZEN TIME
by Alexander S. aka "Eternal" aka "Deadall"

Eternal shoved Voodoo Guns out the door just in time to be hit by the Cacobus and did the same, more or less, with Frozen Time. Like Voodoo Guns, it's a large map for advanced source ports, targeting GLBoom and GZDoom in particular. I ran it without much trouble in GZDoom, but you might want to stick with Boom depending on your computer. While I would have liked to see more Eternal Doom stuff from him, or more stuff from the Voodoo Guns universe, I'm happy with this fairly straightforward and combat-centered map that has no associated story.

Frozen Time takes place in some kind of fortress built into a frozen crater lake, abounding with ramparts and other castle-ish features. While the level isn't exactly tricky to navigate, you may find yourself caught up in the maze of catwalks and staircases at some point, or find that you've missed an innocuous switch somewhere. I completely blanked at the pedestal that opens the door to the northern structure and missed another button that lets you out into the main fighting area. Otherwise, it's more straightforward for an Eternal map then I'd have guessed, with a few cool effects to distinguish it (thinking of the tolling bell at the finale).

Combat is more typical for what Eternal is known for, comparing it to the previous Voodoo Guns, which was more incidental and adventurous. You'll have several packs of revenants to dodge around, for instance, and some awkwardly-appearing arch-viles will have you sweating. One of the highlights is a larger courtyard battle which rolls from skeletons to barons and finally to mancubuses, which you can manipulate to your advantage with some fancy footwork. Another courtyard houses an essential swarm of cacodemons mixed in with a few pain elementals. My favorite, though, is the finale. You don't have much room to maneuver around the two Cyberdemons (foreshadowed during earlier play) while an ancient clock, your only barrier of protection, tolls at high noon. Well, it could be a bright midnight in this latitude.

The outing looks gorgeous, with tons of textures used to create Eternal's winter wonderland and an enormous amount of linedefs construct deceptive faux-3D bridges. If you load the map up and look at the spaces with iddt, they look like solid gray rectangles. All the bits of geometry (including those cool floating horned skulls) combine to make something that's very appealing, supposing your computer has the chutzpah to stomach it. So, go ahead and try it out, and thanks to Eternal for another early Christmas present.

"THE WONDERLAND LAY IN A COAT OF WHITE, CHILLING FROST
I LOOKED AROUND AND I FOUND I WAS TRULY LOST[...]"

This post is part of a series on
Doomworld's 2012 Cacowards

The Top Ten	Best Multiplayer	Runners Up
Doom the Way id Did	WhoDunIt?	Beyond Reality
Strife: Absolute Order	Best Gameplay Mod	Masters of Chaos
Putrefier	Russian Overkill	Frozen Time
5till L1 Complex	Mordeth Award	Planisphere 2
Community Chest 4	Community Chest 4	Coffee Break Ep. 1
Reelism	Mockaward
The Eye	Call of Dooty II
Combat Shock 2	Mapper of the Year
Winter's Fury	Khorus
Base Ganymede: Complete