quake2doom (Q2DOOM.WAD)

The source port boom was co-incident with the release of texture packs from other games. These resources were obviously floating around on the Internet in one form or another prior to 1999, judging by the appearance of Quake textures in Kurt Kesler's work. The community also had a history of using the similarly-formatted assets from Heretic and Hexen. Many of these packages started to formally arrive on /idgames, though, one being Q2TEX. Bryant Robinson aka Gunrock went on to fame and fortune with 2002's Dark 7 and its associated Mission Pack. QUAKE2DOOM appears to be his official debut, originally published in 2000 / 2001. It's a nine-level episode for DOOM2.WAD that claims to work in Boom-compatible ports but is clearly designed for ZDoom. The author recommends the now defunct ZDoomGL "for full impact" so, then, GZDoom if you don't want to do some source port archeology.

I don't have a good handle on its release date because the .TXT is full of conflicting information. It doesn't help that Robinson and his good buddy The Solution made a new Q2DOOM in 2008 (based on this one's MAP02) and overwrote the old set on /idgames. My personal .ZIP has files clearly timestamped in February of 2000 but the information specifies an exact date of 05/25/01 which is around the original time it was uploaded to the archives. More importantly, the author claims compatibility with any source port. Maybe Bryant forgot that one of the early levels requires you to swim through a pipe to one of the keys. Not Boom deep water, mind you. There's also the little matter of the first key in the set only being accessible by jumping on top of a console. Leaping and swimming are solely needed for progression in a couple of instances but you'll miss out on a bunch of goodies without them. I can't remember an instance where not having mouselook would make finishing impossible but you absolutely need it to shoot a number of secret switches.

There are a few other issues that you'll have to sort out before running Q2DOOM in a modern, ZDoom-based port. Robinson is absolutely accurate about needing "quake2tex" though the equivalent file is the aforementioned Q2TEX, converted and compiled by a young Derek Mac Donald. As far as I can tell the .WAD works right out of the box. The other thing is an error in the SNDINFO lump that probably flew in older, less rigorous ZDoom builds. It crashes in today's, though. If you have the original QUAKE2DOOM package and want to run it then you'll need to

1. open it up in a lump editor (I recommend SLADE3)
2. find SNDINFO near the top (right after MAP06 and MAP07, nestled among some sound clips)
3. find line 8 and delete the space between "ambient" and "2" (should end up reading "$AMBIENT 2 ambient2" and then the rest of the line) 

This fixed the issue for me.

With all the technical details out of the way I'll mention that Q2DOOM actually has a story. It isn't set up in the .TXT, though, and isn't communicated through the action of the levels in the least. All of the context is dumped on you in the end text. To retrofit its details, you're a soldier in a struggle against a force known as the "red army" at the climax of the "red wars". The color may or may not signal an infernal origin. Any supernatural status is downplayed but Bryant clearly refers to the final boss as a Mastermind. Your mission appears to be a desperate attempt to kill the opposing leader who is holed up in the only remaining red army complex. It's probably one of those scenarios where slaying the braniac ruler effectively neuters a hive mind, much like Quake II's Makron.

I dunno if the difference was worth throwing out this mapset but Robinson was accurately self-critical when he assessed that "it failed to really capture the quake2 design". I mean, the source was a corridor shooter and this is full of hallways, but it lacks over / under surfaces and the various other embellishments that were built into the level geometry. You don't really get a lot of interesting building facades. I think that "Hydro Station" (MAP07) comes the closest to the look with its dam face and interstitial outdoor bridge. Without copying the geometry wholesale a la "Warehouse", anyway. Quake II's layouts were more complex / integrated; even single rooms could serve as a showpiece. The Baron crusher room in "Atomos" (MAP05) best illustrates the limitations of the project. A large, bare chamber whose sole feature is a belabored torture device does not make for an interesting sideshow.

The last detail probably explains why Bryant remade Q2DOOM some seven years later better than an appeal to the apparent superiority of the Vavoom engine. A cursory look through the 2008 edition reveals the truth: Gunrock just didn't have the chops to do the concept justice back in 2001. I was surprised to see how little slopes and free-standing platforms had to do with the considerably more attractive finished product. Over-under surfaces give that little bit of "wow!" factor to the east annex, which has the most obvious Quake II homages. Nevertheless, the main improvements are a result of two designers having some seven years of experience under their belts.

The mapset definitely follows the encounter design insofar as the scarcity of any carefully orchestrated firefights. The warehouse portions showcase the most interesting combat because of the way crates baffle enemy movement, giving them several different avenues of attack. The rest is straightforward, incidental corridor shooting excepting  a few wide-open outdoor areas. In those cases you might have to dodge withering fire from a revenant or arachnotron while you clear out the beasties on the ground floor. If anything complicates the setups it's the emphasis on shotgun and chaingun gameplay. Robinson appears to be reluctant to supply any weapon apart from maybe the shotgun after each ones' first appearance. Toward the end the only reason you get the single shotty is because it's dropped by a sometimes-not-nearby sergeant. He's perfectly comfortable giving you the resources to quickly slay his boss monsters, though.

If anything about Bryant's level design frustrated me it was a handful of indistinguishable elevators. These navigational obstacles look like the adjacent platforms but lack any obvious marking to intimate their purpose. At least, in the same way that they appear in id's games. The one to trip me up in MAP07 stands an inch lower than the rest of the upper tier and is sectioned off  by a caution-striped column. Some more blatant signposting would be appreciated, though. I can't fault the rest of the set. It's boring at the worst and kind of cool when everything gels together.

Q2DOOM's flavor has two components. The first replaces a lot of sounds. A few of them are obviously Quake II equivalents but others I'm not so sure about. This mostly applies to trash monsters while also affecting the alert noises of some of the bigger guys. The soundtrack is composed of a series of .MOD files. Not all of the authors bothered to leave distinguishing notes in their comments but I don't think that Bryant wrote any of it. The selections don't entirely mesh with memories of Sonic Mayhem (and what would but more SM?) but it gets the job done. MOD02 - "Gateways Part II" by Nitro/Trauma - probably comes the closest. It's a pretty cool techno piece that picks up thick ass guitar riffs for its second half.

QUAKE2DOOM isn't the most distinguished mapset that I've ever played but Bryant was in the same spirit as a number of his peers. Some of them were trying to evoke the feel of a more "advanced" game by using its resources while others used the features added to source ports to make Doom feel relevant when compared to the trends of the time. Robinson did both with some degree of success but I see that he developed into a formidable author over the following seven years. It will be interesting to see how his craft takes him to Dark 7 and beyond.

(Don't forget to grab Q2TEX!)

QUAKE2DOOM

by Bryant "Gunrock" Robinson

Tech 15

MAP01

A decent enough intro. This is a dark metal assemblage of irregularly shaped rooms and corridors. The mostly monochrome scheme looks a bit bland and muffles the impact of the more interesting rooms and architecture. I like the southwest one with the crates, for instance, as well as the exit room's pillar assembly. Some exterior vistas would have gone a long way toward breaking the malaise. It's all shotgun and chaingun action against Doom II trash with a couple of revenants appearing as minibosses.

MAP02

Warehouse

Digging into the meat of it, now. The plain metal continues and while I never thought I'd say this the abundance of crates helps to add some variance over the corrugated steel walls. It also leads to a bunch of organically-paced shootouts as you chase monsters around the stacks while they similarly hunt you. I appreciate the jaunt outside into the arachnotron area but ammo feels a bit tight at that point. There aren't many pitched encounters but the lights out fight with the Hell nobles has the perfect amount of tension. I also recognized at least two homages to Quake II geometry, the outdoor bridge in particular.

Megacycle

MAP03

Another base map. It has an underwater section, though, which is a new gimmick. Bryant kicks his detailing up a notch; the off-blue lit wall panels and tech guts pillars breathe some life into the corridors. The curving hallway right before the "supply station" really stands out in my mind. I like that the layout is less linear than it looks insofar as you're technically absolved from exploring the southeastern leg. You'll regret it if you don't, though. And not just because of the ambush that awaits you at the red key. The combat is otherwise typical room / corridor clearing. Nothing special, just satisfying.

MAP04	The Inpure
	A boss level. The build-up is decent and reminds me of the place where you fight the Super Tank but there is nothing new about the Cyberdemon. If you should find the BFG then this fight will ultimately go off like a damp squib. The other pistol-start potentiality is a long grind with the single shotgun. I suggest that you locate the hidden weapon.

Atomos

MAP05

This feels like a big step backward in terms of making the level look interesting. The wall panelling in the first room looks decent enough but the color scheme is starting to wear on me. The corridor leading to the pointless and otherwise featureless Baron crusher feels especially bland. I like the dingy earthen tunnel that runs west off the elevator, though. The combat is very slow going. It's shotgun play with some chaingun action in the second half and the average beefiness appears to be on a slow trend up. At least the outdoor sections brighten things up a bit.

MAP06

Ice Caverns

Well, this is a welcome change in scenery. Ice caves! The crates contrast much better against the bluish-white. It also makes for an impressive underground fissure, perhaps the best adventure spot thus far. Each area has its own distinct theme. I dunno what's up with that blood pool thing but Bryant is using his imagination much better in this level. It's a hot start, too, since the chaingun and shotgun are in the hands of your enemies. You'll have to rush past a few revenants to make it to them, too. The secret rocket launcher really helps out and it's easy to get to. My favorite level of the set so far. Not because of the difficulty, though.

Hydro Station

MAP07

This starts out great with the view of the dam. Both it and the bridge that link up the east and west segments are cool bits of architecture. I like the machinery rooms, too, especially the platforming one right before the end. The connective tissue isn't great but the corridors wouldn't be so fatiguing if the layout weren't so stringy. The pain elemental makes its debut but it's easily slaughtered. The plasma gun appears, too. I wish that the author had stashed some more cell ammo around to cut loose with. The bridge ambush could have been a great moment but it's an annoying drip feed considering how wide open a space it is. I wish that the cacodemons at the southernmost point were more threatening.

MAP08

Research Lab

I like the color scheme. The red bands in the hallways go a long way toward giving this section a distinct character. It's one of those gory torture / experiment levels but the emphasis is on the holding cells. There's only one scenario for the player to activate. I thought that the arachnotrons would be helpless but Robinson has made the hallways just wide enough for them to stomp around with impunity. As long as they don't reach a doorway, at least. It's pretty good for an interior level and an early super shotgun pickup makes the action very punchy. The big hiccup will be an arch-vile. Thankfully the author allows you to figure out a gameplan before you have to engage it.

Fury Within	MAP09
The final boss level evokes the Makron's orbital platform but it doesn't feel quite so grand. The fight is a against vanilla Spiderdemon, though. It's less dangerous than a Cyberdemon would have been since you're given a megasphere, a plasma gun, and max cells. If you put your back against the opposite wall and hose it down then it shouldn't stand a chance. Enjoy the whirling stars!

I'M NOT BITTER, MAN