Asylum (ASYV10.WAD)

ASYLUM
by "Angry Saint"

Angry Saint's Doom debut was as a participant in Tormentor's Doomja Vu contest. Black Magnetic was an interesting, complex techbase as far as its twisted and winding layout intersected with Saint's use of 3D floors. Asylum, released in 2016, dials the choice of engine all the way back to vanilla (or, as the text file advertises, Chocolate Doom) but the author continues to evade the familiar ideas of id's publications. This time he or she utilizes textures originally created by an individual using the handle DethteX and then converted to a set by ZDoom whizzard Rick Clark, THE ULTIMATE DOOMER. The final release shares its name with the texture pack. Like so many single level releases it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II.

Asylum has no given story but you can infer something from the author's execution. The eponymous structure appears to be the current bastion of Hellspawn to be cleared out, judging from the fact that you start out just inside the front gate. The infestation is deep, all the way down to a vast underground chamber that but for the vagaries of its design could work as some sort of deep aqueduct. As it stands its purpose is inscrutable and only serves to deepen the mystery surrounding the misbegotten asylum,. The adventure terminates with little fanfare in a booth previously populated by commandos, feeling more like Doomguy planting a flag on a summit.

First - Asylum is a very dark mapset. Saint shows what he can do with sector-based lighting including lightcasting, leading to some pretty good moments of contrast best seen perhaps in the dual-balcony room that serves as the heart of the level and through which most of the threads of the braid will pass. This enhances the atmosphere and helps to distract from the relative simplicity of the architecture and detailing, which are for the most part unremarkable. I do like the rounded building front and columns of the starting area. The northwest room that houses the exit looks very cool and the arachnotron / trench basement has a rugged, abstract charm.

The combat starts out very light vs. traditional zombies and imps but quickly explodes into punchy, grueling monster placement. If you hate chaingunners then good news! There are only a handful of them in the level but much of the rest of the map is spent taking on beefy Hell knights, barons, and mancubuses, augmented by various flying monsters and - occasionally - revenants. Angry Saint's calling card in encounter design appears to be having monsters you've just seen teleport behind you, which may ease the sting players often feel toward such ambushes since the audio cue now comes with a pretty obvious visual cue that even tells you what's currently poised to spank your ass.

While Asylum has the basic appearance of incidental encounters it tends to warp other enemies behind you and otherwise force you into tricky monster positioning like the sawtooth drop by the rocket launcher. This makes for rough and tumble combat, particularly given the relative health of the enemies involved. The outdoor firefight to the east is one of the standout encounters given that you're limited to the combat shotgun and all of the fliers start out a good bit above you in the darkness. The author thus gives the pain elemental a pretty big advantage with lost souls potentially getting out of hand.

Asylum is a nice experience in more typical level design after seeing Angry Saint show off in the geometrically advanced GZDoom. It's also cool to see someone play around with a relatively untouched texture pack. While I love the original Doom II it's a joy to wander around a world with a different look, even if the architecture may be relatively unenthusing. Hopefully this prospective level designer sticks around the Doom community for a long time.

COLD IS THE CLIMATE, DARK IS THE ATOMIC NIGHT
SEARCHING AND HOPING, GUARDING MY MIND FROM YOUR SIGHT
YOUR EVIL EYES WATCH ME, YOUR EVIL EYES TOUCH ME, THEY'RE COLD
I CAN STAND PRISON, BUT EVEN MY CONSCIOUS YOU HOLD