AN INFERNAL PLACE v1.1
by Pablo Dictter
An Infernal Place v1.1 is a Doom II conversion of an E1M1 replacement that Dictter had made a few months prior in 2001. The original iteration was published on I assume his hosted website as well as Doom WAD Station, where you can find a few of his maps that never found their way to the archives. It was apparently meant for a larger-scale project called Good V/S Evil that never really took off in his esteem. In any event, v1.1 changed the format to Doom II and made some changes to sectors and thing placement that make for a somewhat different play. Worthy enough of being considered for a separate review? By my reckoning, yes. After all, I did decide to cover RRW_D201. This revision of INFERNAL is a MAP01 replacement that purportedly plays back in any port. The original might, too, for all it matters.
None of the particulars surrounding the (lack of a) story or setting have changed between versions. This level is a tiny stretch of purposeless corridor which the UAC has been storing crates in like serial hoarders. You arrive in an area that's clearly meant as a teleporter destination and similarly leave, though Dictter has elected to make a DACOTE-style ending where you exit into some sort of room of pain and suffering. Is the player a reality refugee who somehow slipped through the cracks, only to have Hell's oversight corrected during the next jaunt? Or are you are one of the early experiment subjects who never came back?
The general character of the level is the same as the OG Doom version of INFERNAL, so check out my review for a more comprehensive overview. The short: dark brick walls, Hellish corruption from cherry red and organic bits, and a cloudy red void with no apparent topography. Pablo changed some sound bits, the most notable being a loud and unearthly groan that replaces the sort of grating sector motion noise. It's a neat stinger but overdone by the time you finish. I made a comparison to his earlier Warehouse and it still stands. I have a feeling that I'll be seeing crate-cluttered hallways of a similar composition as I continue to peruse Dictter's back catalogue.
The changes... There are Doom II monsters, of course. A few chaingunners, a revenant in a relatively cramped room... Oh, and an arch-vile. The last detail constitutes the most invasive change to the map as it's revealed by a corruption-style vacuole that opens up. It's probably the least dangerous of the monsters, too, since you can block it into its aperture and then diligently shotgun it to death. Dictter replaced the plasma gun with a rocket launcher, an ambivalent alteration considering how open the room is where you get it. Pablo went through the trouble of putting this in Doom II but neglected to utilize the super shotgun, reinforcing the slower-style shotgun combat of the original. The most amusing sector change for me is raising one of the hallway crates onto a metal support, as if that now justifies the dream-like assemblage of storage materials that litters the corridors.
This is a short, linear jaunt through Doom II that looks okay at first glance. You could suffer through much worse experiences nowadays but if you're seeking out the sort of depth found in newschool layouts and combat then you'll want to give this one a pass.
A TIME AND A SPACE
AN INFERNAL PLACE
o wad mais idiota do mundo. como é que psotam uma @#$$ dessas?
ReplyDeleteI made a decision to play every single WAD from every single contributor leading up to the first Community Chest. Andy Leaver was one such person and his No Hope For Life episode, which Pablo contributed to, was on the list. I've always wanted to dive into Pablo's stuff even knowing that a lot of it is barely substantial because I really loved his map in PCCP (MAP16).
Delete