One Doomed Marine (ODM-V1.1.PK3)

Alexa received accolades for her work in GZDoom - Shadows of the Nightmare Realm in 2017 and, more recently, 2018's Umbra of Fate - but she has had a lot of prior practice in Doom editing utilities. Much of it went toward her incomplete one woman megaWAD (Kill) but her advanced source port debut was in the Doomsday engine with One Doomed Marine in 2010. I'm pretty sure that Jaakko's .EXE was my first community port since it was the target for Kaiser's D64: Absolution TC. It looked a bit different back then, though, and the gap between this five map minisode's original release (made for v1.8.6) and the current version of Doomsday (v2.1) has introduced a number of complications in its functionality.

ODM was originally released on the /idgames archive with a separately available soundtrack on Alexa's personal website. The music was eventually bundled into a v1.1 publication, again available on the author's own page. The /idgames release basically works on Doomsday v2.1 but v1.1 has even more issues that prevent it from being identified as a mod and also crash on loading due to a deprecated engine feature. I only know the specifics because I asked the friendly folks at the Doomsday forum who were even kind enough to produce an altered copy that fixed some of the surface-level issues. Both versions of One Doomed Marine are perfectly functional on v1.8.6 outside of a certain essential switch in MAP03, also broke in v2.1. If you want to play ODM then I highly recommend using the v1.8.6, the target version for its development.

The story is one of a minority to explicitly break from portraying the continuing adventures of Doomguy. Or, for that matter, leave any room for interpretation as to whether you could be playing as him. The bad shit still goes down on Phobos but parallel to its predicament is the invasion of Earth. It's a big planet compared to the Martian moon, though. The specific location is the Arizona Space Marine Starport. I assume that it's supposed to be in the state of the same name in the USA. You're a recent transfer but in one horrific moment everyone else is dead, leaving you as the sole survivor. Your morbid misadventure takes you through the base and eventually to the source.

My inexperience with Doomsday can't help but color my feelings on ODM's combat. I've played ZDoom for most of the past nine years so its movement and input models are burned into my brain. I didn't find out until after writing this review that the lag was due to the port simulating a classic rate of 35 hz (which can be disabled). I was starting to get used to it by the time I reached the finale but I still died way more than I am accustomed to given the relatively straightforward monster placement. Many of the fights in the starbase maps kick off with you opening a door only to find a mixed squad of monsters standing in formation on the other side. I like to think of myself as being pretty good at managing a fatal funnel but I was eating fireballs and missing shots like I'd just picked up the game.

Doomsday does have its perks, though. One of the more extensive features is colored sector lighting, used subtly throughout the first few maps. I took a while to pick up on it and initially thought that there was some weird sort of daylight cycle going on because of the darker, washed-out look of the blue tinted areas. Its usage peaks in "Mainframe and Storage" (MAP03) with a Hellish crossover scene. I was surprised to see the first of the two infernal outings feature no chromatic shading whatsoever. It would have been nice to see One Doomed Marine embrace it a bit more but I'm sure to see crazier colors in my future. If you don't run it with all the bells and whistles then you'll miss out on a lot of the ambiance brought on by particle effects. The minisode feels unusually lifeless without it.

ODM manages to squeeze in some interesting combat scenarios outside of the sardines model. I really like the start of "The Hell That Awaits" (MAP04) because it's an open-air fight with heavy monsters. The shotgun guy drip feed prevents you from simply strafing it into oblivion. One of the most memorable base segments has you navigating a warehouse where monsters are strategically placed behind every crate, lying in wait as you pick your way through. I think that the boss fight is both brilliant as well as frustrating since Alexa has a solution to prevent you from rounding up the Cyberdemons and gunning them down. It's incredibly disorienting but you're given an invul on lower difficulties which should help during the initial phase.

It also has some tone-deaf enemy placement that is bound to screw players up. I doubt whether most of these scenarios were concocted to fuck with the player. Judging from a casual HMP perusal it looks like some of the nastiest elements are UV peppers thrown into the gumbo without subsequent taste-testing. The mosh pit waiting at the floor of MAP03's red key room is a thorny pitfall since it prevents you from immediately retreating. There's another elevator-reliant issue later on in the map; depending on how you explored you might have an entire column of monsters waiting at the top for you. The worst, I think, comes after a pretty neat yellow cracked canyon and involves an arch-vile standing behind three eager Barons on the other side of a small door. I couldn't think of a graceful way to handle it but I managed to make it by the skin of my teeth thanks to some deft maneuvering and - mainly - the combat shotgun painstun lottery.

Alexa's individual level progression will probably be the biggest sticking point. If you hate not knowing where to go in a mapset then you are going to have a bad time. Your dissatisfaction will be to the tune of pressing a switch and then exploring the level to see which one of the sealed doors has opened. One of the trickiest levers raises a button pedestal in an already-cleared portion of the map and your only clue that anything has changed will be the mysterious presence of new monsters in the same locale. I already talked about MAP03 and its malfunctioning switch. When you come to that moment - post-pressing the button behind the blue key door - then you'll just have to noclip your way to the yellow key.

The layouts are perfectly serviceable but tend to rely on that room-and-doorish dungeon crawler pacing. It doesn't take advantage of the engine to make the sort of cavernous complexes but some of the larger rooms - like the bay of "Out of the Frying Pan" (MAP01) and the core of MAP03 - have a token amount of vertical height complexity. Some of the room contents are more interesting than others. One of my favorite bits is the giant silver SHAWN console system found in one of the rooms in the first level. The server racks in the third are another appreciated detail to keep things from feeling less labyrinthine.

One Doomed Marine's soundtrack is a pretty good smattering of .OGG and .MP3 files. A typo prevents you from hearing the music for MAP04, though, because it is actually an .MP3 and not an .OGG as the definition file specifies. If you want to hear it then you'll have to crack it open in something like SLADE3 and tweak the MUSIC.DED to reflect this. MAP01 starts out with a sinister tone but picks up a dance beat before some neat chord progression. MAP02 is a plodding cyberpunk darkstroll. MAP03 continues the hacker aesthetic but carries an upbeat edge. It might be my favorite piece. MAP04 is very much in line with the Hellish topography it's supposed to back. The typical blues progression is a nice Bobby Prince touch. The finale sounds at odds with the actual fight; I think that it would work better in a quieter, low-key interstitial level. I dig the track, though.

Downloading Doomsday - as well as a legacy version, no less - has been something of an adventure but it was worth it. Fortunately for people who appreciate one-stop-shop ports, Alexa has a plan to rework One Doomed Marine for GZDoom. Whatever the case I'd suggest playing it on Hurt Me Plenty before taking a shot at Ultra-Violence.

I suggest downloading v1.1 from Alexa's personal site and playing it in Doomsday v1.8.6 but if you insist, v1.0 is still available to

ONE DOOMED MARINE

by Alexa "YukiRaven" Jones-Gonzales

Out of the Frying Pan, Into...

MAP01

A lovingly detailed techbase that is full of Doom II trash. It still managed to kill me a ton since I'm just not jiving with Doomsday's movement model. Action is mainly open door, hold back tide of imps / zombies / demons, repeat. There are a couple of teleport ambushes but the biggest one is a secret. The second was pretty raw because I suck so bad at dodging in this source port. The trickiest bit to get through is the long cargo bay overlooking the outdoor area. The monsters have a ton of hidey-holes and progressively pop out as you creep forward. Architecture and detailing look pretty great. The combat feels uninspired but I also appear to be incapable of playing it at a level where I can enjoy it.

MAP02

Auxiliary Computing

I think that I'm starting to get my sea legs. The style of the hub complex is pretty much the same and the combat matches but Gonzales expands the bestiary with cacodemons, pain elementals, revenants, and Hell nobles. I am again appreciative of the extensive outdoor secret area. This one is a bit more confusing because one of the switches raises up a button pedestal halfway across the map in a previously-explored location. Your only clue is the distant sound of roaming monsters but it was the scene of a previous teleporter ambush so it might not surprise you to hear them. Most of the fun fights are in the central room with the cage. The yellow key annex packs some punch since it drops a few heavies right on top of you.

Mainframe and Storage

MAP03

A very large and generally fun techbase level. It has a few cool-looking rooms, the best being the enormous chamber where you acquire the yellow key. There are a few issues, though. The red key mosh pit feels very awkward to approach as it's loaded with hitscanners on either side. I suppose that saving it until after you have the plasma gun could work. It also seems like mancubi want to crowd the top of the elevator in the server room. I dunno whether this is just a consequence of exploring the outside, though, since it glimpses and activates the monsters on the other side. My big issue - the bridge that is supposed to link the upper catwalk to the yellow key ledge is broke. It's a frustrating experience since the mapset is thus far loaded with unintuitive progression.

MAP04

The Hell That Awaits

A tightly-constructed infernal den. Some of the monster placement, like cramming Hell nobles in tight winding corridors, is unwelcome. I'm also not a fan of the arch-vile behind the Barons in the room at the end of the canyon pathway. The opening fight is very refreshing, though, since you have a ton of free space and the most pressing monsters to arrive are occasional shotgun guys. I'm surprised to see the colored lighting virtually disappear considering the show that Gonzales put on in MAP03.

The Outlands

MAP05

A very tough setup against four Cyberdemons in an open arena. The author is aware of how this would typically end in a circle strafe-a-thon so certain thresholds cause the Cybs to teleport away. They vanish to a holding pen somewhere else and then re-materialize at a seemingly random location. Sometimes it's the moment before the BFG tracers hit and at others it's right in your face as you're running around. After dying a few times you start to get a feel for where you need to back off and the places to herd Cyberdemons to maximize the effectiveness of your BFG. The blur sphere is pure poison, of course, but very handy for the relatively straightforward second phase.

THAT'S ONE BLOOMED SPACE MARINE