dead.wire (XA-DWIRE.WAD)

DEAD.WIRE
by Xaser Acheron

I hope you don't think that Xaser's been keeping quiet. He's got his tendrils in a handful of community projects, plus the management of both Doom the Way id Did: The Lost Episodes and No End in Sight. Heck, in 2014, he was one of the unifying forces of Back to Saturn X E2. 2015 wasn't a big year for the X-man, but there was a flurry of standalone releases to drink in, starting with dead.wire. This map was a competitor in Realm667's 2015 Doomja Vu contest, and while it did not bring home the gold, it ALMOST did, and if you load it up in GZDoom you'll quickly see why.

The setup, just a little outside the norm. You're an engineer working for the UAC and, one day, they start to get a strange signal. Not from one of the normal sources, of course. If it was a research station or a military base, you'd know what to expect. This time, it's an abandoned facility. I guess that's better than some outpost getting massacred by demons, but if anyone thought there was some sort of threat, you'd probably be arriving at the facility with some backup. As it stands, you've just got your trusty rifle as you slip inside. Pretty soon, you encounter a phantom, which isn't too outside of the norm... Then you turn the power on.

dead.wire is creepy. Its atmosphere is buoyed by an essentially brand new texture set (hailing from Chasm: The Rift), an ambient track, and tons of static. The map's reality undergoes a number of transformations that leave the player with a sense of unease, since entire areas appear to blink in to existence from the void of noise. You may also find yourself in, say, the opposite end of the level, or in an entirely different and oppressive section. Some of the level's subtle changes build interconnectivity, usually once you've secured one of the weapons, almost all of which are new.

The only returning armament is the trusty shotgun. Your starting weapon is the rifle, which fires at a faster rate than the pistol and consumes two bullets per shot. The rocket launcher is replaced with the flamethrower, which cuts through monsters and leaves a briefly lingering presence and comes with a pretty memorable firefight centered around demons and a handful of arch-viles. The M16 assault rifle replaces the chaingun, and is about what you'd expect as far as chaingun replacements go, though you don't get a good chance to play around with it given that the fenced-in encounter after you acquire it will probably eat through most of the provided ammo. The laser rifle is delightfully camp, firing real red lasers right out of Star Wars that rip through monsters. The last weapon is the prototype HRC, a BFG replacement that behaves more intuitively, sort of like a red laser rocket launcher with a lot more oomph.

Xaser doesn't include any jump scares, but some players may be put off by the prevalence of specterized monsters, versions of which appear in lieu of imps, barons, lost souls, and cacodemons... and a special surprise at the very end. Most of the monsters are now abstaining from making any noise, but these guys seem especially silent, static-bound after-images of some invasion gone wrong. Since everything is either melee-only or has a straight fireball attack, they're not that threatening, but they do a great job of sneaking up on you, particularly those lost souls. Of additional note - enemy HP has been reduced across nearly the entire board, judging from the efficacy of the shotgun. Or, uh, maybe the shotgun is just that much more powerful. I'm sure I could peek inside the DECORATE and find out, but I prefer not to in this particular case.

The combat is not that hard at all, excepting the flamethrower battle, but you can build a good buffer by zerging the first arch-vile and then carefully herding and stepping around the perimeter. Of all the other fights, including the big ol' slaughter at the end where you get to cut loose with the HRC, only the laser rifle fight comes close, and that's mainly because of the crowd of revenants that tries to get at you. I suppose that some players might have trouble with the partially invisible Cyberdemons that shoot comparatively rapid-fire rockets, but the HRC is a true atomizer and with all the cell ammo lying around it's better to go for firepower over finesse.

The progression was pretty natural to me, but I did a lot of searching around before approaching the telltale exit pad. It wasn't until I took a second look at the level when I realized that the torches stationed at the biggest encounters, which just seemed like cool visual hooks, were integral to completing the level. A switch near the exit tunnel has a corresponding torch for each of your major victories, and if you make it to the button before you're finished, the author is polite enough to turn you around with a cryptic clue.

As for Doomja Vu, well, I can kind of see the ghost of E1M7 rattling around when I compare the automaps, but just about everything else is unmistakably Xaser. The author twists the perception of E1M7 as a relatively straightforward labyrinth (an oxymoron?) with elements like the northeastern annex linking up to the westernmost section and several bits of progression that may not be as straightforward, even though there's a big arrow pointing to the mancubus ledge you use to access the M16 yard. Treachery abounds with every footstep, and players that get ahead of themselves will find the static void an uncompromising surface.

I'm still not sure what exactly is going on with the signal. Has the entirety of the outpost been consumed by the sinister static, with the player's actions slowly ushering it toward reality? Or is the engineer thrust into the presence once he throws the switch, bearing witness to the viral consumption of the outpost as it is devoured, piece by piece, blinking from our world and into theirs? Movement between either state is a bit more fluid than it initially seems, given that the area containing the assault rifle is under the starry night sky seen at the beginning and the ending. Whatever happens, terminating the signal - and returning everything back to normal, blessed silence - is a great note to end things on.

dead.wire isn't particularly big, but it's got a distinct, unique setting, one that I wouldn't mind returning to. Heck, any excuse for Xaser to go rooting around through any texture set that's not vanilla is a good one. About the only reason I think you'd hate dead.wire is because of all the spectrized versions of original Doom monsters, but it's a small price to pay for this stunning adventure.

RADIO KILLED THE VIDEO STAR

This post is part of a series on
Realm 667's Doomjá-vu competition

Mouldy Old Void	Put Up Your Dukes!
dead.wire	Black Magnetic
The Heart of Stone	Celestial Site

This post is part of a series on
Doomworld's 2015 Cacowards

The Top Ten	Best Multiplayer	Runners Up
Sunlust	Don't Be a Bitch Remastered	Doomed Space Wars
Erkattäññe	ChaosCore CTF	Crumpets
Skulldash	Best Gameplay Mod	Prime Directive
Swift Death	DoomRL Arsenal	Pinnacle of Darkness
Breach	Mordeth Award	Ol' No Name
Valiant	ChaosCore CTF	32in24-14
50 Shades of Graytall	Mockaward
Sheer Poison	InstaDoom
dead.wire	Mapper of the Year
Return to Hadron	dannebubinga