Abyssal Speedmapping Session 6 (ABYSPED6.WAD)

The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions have been going relatively strong since 2013. These events get a group of community members together to create maps based around a choice of themes with two hours for the raw sector work and fifteen each for texturing and polishing. Unless you go by Alfonzo, in which case you use a third hour so often that it gets named after you. The sixth occurrence happened in May of 2014 and resulted in eleven Doom II levels for play in a Boom-compatible source port. Two other maps were made during the allotted time - one by scifista42 and another by Doomkid - but the organizer did not include them in the final package.

ABYSPED6 sees the participants trying on a different gimmick than a theme / prompt. This time, Obsidian picked three custom monsters and authors were required to use at least one of them. The first of these guys is the venerable rocket trooper from Obituary. He's been altered to drop ordnance upon his death but he's still great at splashing himself and everything around him. The afrit is a clever foe who should be one of the most familiar custom monster faces, having appeared in the likes of Scythe II and Deus Vult II. Not to forget the more recent Resurgence, of course. It's a flying Baron-type thing that attacks with a spray of mancubus fireballs and revenant rockets. The last and least popular is the arachnophyte. It's basically a flying, less durable Spiderdemon.

The new monsters add some "oh shit!" surprises. The rocket trooper has always served for cheap thrills, heightening the stakes of ambushes. I find the surrounding psychology interesting since you get even greater positive feedback for dodging its attacks. Quickly ducking around a corner as it winds up usually results in its own death. The afrit is generally used here as a (mini)boss style encounter. This applies to GRB's twelve-balrog pileup that serves as the soul-crushing penultimate fight in "Hate Your Life" (MAP10). The arachnophyte fails to thrill since it's generally used in areas where it can't move very far and thus wouldn't be functionally different from the Spiderdemon except for having less HP. I suppose that this could be a benefit! I prefer S.T.R.A.I.N.'s polydrone, myself.

"J-Pad's Space Pad" (MAP02), "Never Got a Name" (MAP05), and "Alfonzo Gets a Sex Change" (MAP08) play like small-sized normal levels. "The Devil's Artist" (MAP07) is unusual - though not compared to Alf's typical fare - in putting the player in a situation where the only sane move is to run. And, later on, kill an arch-vile with a chainsaw. "Angst" (MAP03) is cute but feels more like a map fragment, albeit one which sports a cutthroat finish. "Purposefully Misaligned STARTAN2" (MAP04) is a micro-arena that goes best with tactical clearing. jmickle made another submission, too, a hastily put together jokemap. It doesn't actually have an exit linedef but you'll know when it's over.

"Hot Fudge" (MAP01) is a competent feel-good level. I think that I prefer Mugsy's use of the arachnophyte to any of the others. "The Tale of Sir Dimension" (MAP06) was a bit shocking since Osiris decided to utilize the "Wormhole" theme from ABYSPED3. It has one significant roadblock in an arch-vile filled warehouse and the dark world opening is slightly hairy. I enjoy the potential of the theme, though. "Poorly Made Decisions" (MAP09) is a little rough around the edges but I enjoyed the parts that didn't involve mucking through rocket trooper infested-tunnels. The big row of switches of dubious purpose got a few laughs out of me. I was really disappointed with "Hate Your Life" since it has a decent start and then bangs against the rails before flying off and into a grueling wreck at the player's expense.

I enjoyed seeing custom monsters get featured for a session, though, and apart from one minor and one major hiccup I had a decent time of it. I'm intrigued to see jmickle join the roster and hope that ClonedPickle continues to bring the same level of fun, loose gameplay in future entries.

ABYSSAL SPEEDMAPPING

SESSION 6

by various authors

Hot Fudge	MAP01
by "Mugsy"
Hell-themed but with a dark and slightly tense techbase jaunt. It actually gives you quite a bit of health margin, starting on a soul sphere. None of the monsters are dangerous so I survived some fairly reckless play to reach the boss. The arachnophyte encounter is very forgiving since its granite outdoor area is one big circuit for you to lure it around. It's easy to maintain constant cover and I'm happy to find that it isn't nearly as durable. Architecture is okay. There's a bit of height variation, my favorite bit being the dueling staircases in the opening area.

MAP02	J-Pad's Space Pad
by James "Jimmy" Paddock
	A concrete orbital platform style-level. Minus the stuff that makes it look like it's floating in space, of course. This super fun blastathon fronts you the SSG and lets you clean house against, err, mostly zombies. The hitscanner Hell can wear you down if you're not careful, though. The sneakiest bits here are the rocket troopers since your brain files them as plain ol' zombimen at a distance. Jimmy's layout is very and interconnected. You are constantly peeking into places that you are going to visit ahead of time. The final area is cleverly constructed to give you cover against the almighty afrit.

Angst	MAP03
by James "Obsidian" Caldwell
For a speedmap it looks pretty ornate on its face. This is a small slice of a Gothic locale. The author spends much of his time building to the climax by throwing sequential afrit fakeouts at the player. The connective tissue is populated by zombies at the beginning and then, later on, a slow stream of lost souls. I think that there's some self-referencing sector hoodoo going on in the sewer segment. I like the sequence, though, since the enviro suit feels akin to a Metroidvania-ish powerup and is required to progress further. You get to meet your interjecting aggressors at the end in a tense standoff. Obsidian's final curveball is liable to take you out, though. The action feels a little slow because it's navigated solely by the super shotgun but the finale is knockabout fun.

MAP04	Purposefully Misaligned STARTAN2
by Jazz "jmickle" Mickle
	A short death arena / gauntlet sort of thing. The banded texture looks garish until you peek into the stepped side areas. It's a deadly crossfire / cover shooter. The central area is staffed with rocket troopers and an afrit; there's an arch-vile to the left; and the right has a few friendly revenants. Hanging out in the open is a dangerous proposition. The arachnophyte feels unusually ineffectual. There are some interesting, abstract choices in a FIREBLU sky and a small, flaming staircase. My favorite detail is a signature launch pad that takes you to a secret. Its primary purpose appears to be hiding a handful of monsters from completionists.

Never Got a Name For This One Matty Boy	MAP05
by Matt Tropiano
Mista_T provides his usual, reliable brand of speedmap action. Here, it's rendered in dark brown brick. The blue sky and lava fluid do a lot to liven up the color scheme. The level's areas feel larger in scale compared to Matt's past affairs but I think that this is mainly due to the size of the starting room. It's reused several times for some action-packed fights. I somehow managed to avoid getting cheesed by the rocket trooper ambushes. Especially fortunate considering the "death from above" snipers. The incidental combat is fun to pick apart because of the multiple tiers of play / height variation. The surprises featuring the DeHackEd beasties were the most memorable to me, though, because of the instant panic involved.

MAP06	The Tale of Sir Dimension
by Osiris Kalev
	This one makes use of the astoundingly difficult-to-speedmap "Wormhole" theme that was featured in ABYSPED3. The geometry of both worlds is almost identical but you have to hop back and forth to complete it. The action is okay, maybe a little meaty to start, but it grinds to a screeching halt once you reach the Hell version of the warehouse. The arch-vile placement is less than accommodating given your weapon loadout. I wouldn't be surprised to see players run out of ammo at this point. If you can make it past there, though, then you ought to be able to finish it out.

The Devil's Artist Wields a Chainsaw	MAP07
by Augustus "Alfonzo" Knezevich
Gus is all about twisting the player into uncomfortable positions. The early game involves managing a pack of Hell knights but the true peak madness occurs in the high-contrast dungeon. Having to chainsaw an arch-vile is bad but I suppose that the accompanying zombies are a mixed blessing. Things are much more straightforward once you clear the basement, even moreso if you figure out the enviro suit secret. I had my doubts about whether or not I was really meant to grind the Hell nobles down given the nearby barrels. I particularly enjoyed the lightcasting and squat architecture of this one.

MAP08	Alfonzo Gets a Sex Change, Undoes That Sex Change, and Then Battles Concrete
by Richard "Tarnsman" Frei
	Another great-looking level from Tarns. This gray stone outpost is populated with heavies, including a Spiderdemon. There's some token rocket trooper usage for a few evil surprises but it's otherwise fairly typical knockabout play. The mancubi are pretty fun to take out given how eager the author is to put strong weapons in the hands of the player. The real question is: What does it take to get the 150 or so zombimen to teleport into the playing area?

A Series of Poorly Made Decisions	MAP09
by Connor "ClonedPickle" Maddin
A rough, abstract level that showcases all of the DeHackEd monstrosities. The rocket troopers show up in both of the major areas but more memorably in the first. The second bit consists of damage floor tunnels that transition to an afrit arena. Their floaty nature makes killing them with the rocket launcher a tricky proposition. If anything will wear on the player then it's going to be the row of switches seen opposite the starting platform. One of these turns the entire balcony into a crusher!

MAP10	Hate Your Life
by Sebastian "General Rainbow Bacon" Graham
	I generally don't mind GRB's levels but this is a joy thief, a bad joke that starts out semi-plausible and then becomes impossible. I fought the good fight, even when the nine arch-viles boiled into the red key room. The exit wing is packed with squads of afrits but the first two aren't bad since they start out caged. I dunno how you could feasibly kill everything but all 24 of them must die before you open up the final barrier. I ended up with a scant 7% health after using the megasphere for the first half of the dungeon. You will want every bit of it to weather the afrit crossfire when you drop into the trench. Either play perfectly up through the red key or don't bother. Surviving the pincer attack is possible but the RNG helps immeasurably. Between the lifts and the hole you jumped down through it's possible to divert some of them into the upper area. The BFG nested on the arch-vile / arachnophyte platform is the final, morbid poke at the player to push me over the edge. Fuck this level.

MAXIMUM	MAP11
by Jazz "jmickle" Mickle
Now, I can actually take this sort of punishment. The closer is an ugly STARTAN adventure whose nadir is somewhere between stiff-arming pain elementals or a tiny spectre maze. If you find your way through to the "exit" then you'll reveal the terrible secret. I smiled; I needed it.

BALROCKS IN THE ABYSS