FOUL RUIN
by Alex Parsons
AP was a pretty cool dude who made a bunch of maps starting in 2002. His World's End series was named for the first of the set and spans twelve levels, two of which were only released as part of the original Community Chest alongside other craft single makers like Gene Bird and Sphagne. Foul Ruin is the fourth entry. As is the case with the majority of his /idgames uploads it's a MAP01 replacement published in 2002. It's also probably not compatible with the original Doom. I don't think that it uses any ZDoom-specific features but it was Alex's only testing port. It should work in any limit-removing .EXE.
The series doesn't have a story so much as it has descriptions of the parade of locations like blurbs for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. World's End isn't a time, it's a place, the starting point of your adventure. You clear out the imp-infested badlands and investigate The Underground, rooting them out from their subterranean lair. When you emerge you find yourself in The Outlands, a neighboring area that's no less hostile. You brave the broken earth and lava pits to reach the Foul Ruin. The previous instances tried but cannot truly prepare you for what you will discover in this stronghold of evil.
AP_004 is wildly different than its three predecessors in some ways and in others it's an extension of all of the ideas explored in AP_001-AP_003. This is a much larger level and has a wider variety of monsters, clocking in at over 700 baddies. It builds on The Outlands' assortment of zombies, imps, Hell knights, and mancubi. The pain elemental only cameos in the biggest encounter but revenants and Barons appear regularly. Arch-viles show up as you'd expect, giving the player some carefully calculated stingers. The cacodemon, demon, and specters each get a couple of big chances to shine but it's clear that Parsons is more comfortable with monotypical monster packs.
A large portion of the level takes place in a beige brick ruin, a texture scheme that had not yet been covered by Alex outside of a few token bunkers in the original World's End but you definitely see callbacks to previous themes. The treacherous granite gulch / lava combo of The Outlands appears early on in the set. The lead-up to the final segment includes dirt tunnels and toxic floors, the two hallmarks of The Underground. The combat in the canyon segment is a bit too familiar, though, especially the numerous secreted sniper chaingunners. The big change-ups come with an inundation of imps - one of the level's more memorable encounters - and an equally dangerous stable of skeletons.
Foul Ruin is one of those maps that you unpack, poking and prodding until its entirety is opened up to you. It's interesting to see how the various areas are connected together as you near its end. Parsons has included a dazzling array of secrets and at least one of them is only accessible once barring a reload / restart. The complement of sector machinery is appreciated and makes for a much more interesting exploration experience than his first three releases. One of my favorite settings is the finale room. The irregular but orthogonal shape and stepped ceiling / floor heights gives it a great look and and I like that the staged ambushes are ultimately by way of opening additional spaces. The combat - claustrophobic vs. mostly a mess of Barons - isn't so hot so you'll want to do the side area for the BFG.
Two of the bigger surprises are toward the end and they come one right after another. The most varied encounter of the map is a cramped teleporter death arena with four different tiers. While the mancubus, arch-vile, and commando don't feature it's the only place where you'll encounter the pain elemental. It's actually pretty fun since the invasion is more of a stream and two slightly difficult to reach invul artifact / soul sphere pairs gives you plenty of margin. The northeast portion of the map, which you see early on when you're traipsing through the petrified forest, has more of a "Living End" vibe. It's mostly shooting imps on ledges as you make your way around to the bunker but it starts out with a nice wall of cacodemons advancing toward your position.
Some of the fights are pretty fun but a lot of connective tissue is bogged down by repeat pairs of Barons or awkward revenant placement. It gets old quick since your early game is restricted to the regular shotgun and chaingun. Its progression style is also quite classic between all of the switch-fu and walkover triggers. The rising sectors of muck in the central-eastern nukage sewer are bound to catch a few players. Parsons is also selective in which damage floor pits he wants to allow you to escape. I jumped into a blind trench early - a leap of faith - demonstrating how I had all too quickly forgot the lack of allowances afforded during The Outlands. The molten outdoor chasm is similarly out of bounds. A good rule of thumb - if you can't see an obvious way out then you shouldn't bother.
Foul Ruin is still a pretty cool level in spite of its sometimes glacial pace. Playing on a lower difficulty should help since it cuts approximately 200 monsters from the lineup as well as downgrading some of the Barons to Hell knights. It's nice to see Parsons tackle something on a larger scale and the variations of themes and architecture make for a compelling playthrough. I find myself eagerly anticipating the next step of Doomguy's crusade.
FOUL OLE RUIN
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