Max Saga: The Doom Dragon (MAX2.WAD)

MAX SAGA

THE DOOM DRAGON

Impie is now best-known for his impressive portfolio of mods and TCs but his career circa 2014 had him playing around with standard Doom II gameplay. The plots still drew on other properties, of course. They just didn't mess around with "advanced" engine features. Three of these releases ended up as part of Strange Aeons's fifth episode and this one is no different, appearing there as "The Vaults of Zin" (E5M3). The Doom Dragon is unique because it is actually an E1M1 replacement for Heretic, of all things. As far as I know, any limit-removing port that supports it ought to be able to play MAX2. If not, well, then I can personally vouch for ZDoom.

This is the second portion of MacDee's Saga which draws its name from the Mighty Max brand of toys. Both of the maps are actually based on specific playsets. The overall storyline for the PWADs hints cheekily at the player character being at the mercy of the user, "doomed to wander space and time, battling supernatural evils for the god's amusement". This particular adventure occurs Yn Olden Tymes where a Scandinavian cult has amassed magical artifacts in a bid to awaken the Midgard serpent, thus provoking Ragnarok. I didn't realize until now that the forces of darkness go by RAVENdark. It's actually the given name of the sorcerer in the toy itself. There are other serendipitous circumstances that also made Heretic the natural framework for The Doom Dragon.

It wasn't as immediately obvious to me since so much of Skull Dungeon consisted of the relatively clean-looking palace but this level's first major setpiece is based on the design of the playset. I'm talking about the two volcanic islands that are joined by a bridge. MacDee has also included the acid lake on the ground floor as well as the lava trench found in the back. It's a nice series of homages and makes me wonder what any further levels would have looked like. The sets included a broad variety of themes, most (if not all) of which Doom and its impressive array of custom user content could accommodate. Heretic was definitely the right choice for this one, though. There's even an internal logic to the placement where the cultists (disciples) can only be found in their chapel. Until then you'll be battling saurian fare like weredragons and sabreclaws as well as lesser, summoned creatures. Mostly gargoyles and undead warriors.

MAX2 is a nice, medium-size Heretic level. It fits pretty easily into the style of its second episode since its setting is composed of almost entirely naturalistic caverns. If you're a fan of Cooking With Corvus then the slower gameplay pace won't throw you off. Impie doesn't do himself any favors by leaning so heavily on weredragons as his workhorse monsters. Better than ethereal stuff given the prominence of the crossbow, I guess. The two fights found toward the end are my favorites. Blasting disciples with the Hellstaff feels great and the follow-up is your last chance to use the secret Tome of Power if you've been saving it. There's a pair of iron liches, too, which could go by really fast if you snagged the phoenix rod or not so much if otherwise.

Some of the switch-fu is a devil to figure out but it's worth it for the many, powerful secrets. The least intuitive aspect is probably using the ring of invulnerability to investigate the lava tunnels in order to obtain the yellow key. I suppose that it's not a proper secret but Heretic's inventory feature allows authors to set up less obvious sequences where Doom would slap an enviro suit nearby and call it a day. As far as environmental design goes, the only failure is in its ambiance which could be heightened through some more mood lighting. I know that such portions as the lava lakes are going to be lit fairly well by default but the opening scene looks like 1994 fullbright and seems tacky as a result.

Maybe Mike will dig back through his toybox again and draw inspiration from another one of those gruesomely goofy playsets. It'd be interesting to see what he might do with so much modding experience under his belt. Maybe he'd give fans of other idtech1 games a morsel. 2019 is something of an exception as far as the amount of Heretic content goes; it's usually so far and few between. The Doom Dragon is built well enough that Raven disciples shouldn't be disappointed.

KISS YOUR LITTLE BLACK BOOK

GOOD-BYE, RAVE BABY!