Metamorphism (META.WAD)

METAMORPHISM

by Brad Spencer and Karthik Abhiram Krishna

Mapping has generally been a highly personal endeavor, the exercise of an author's absolute authority over a microcosm. Shared credits for single levels are the exception rather than the norm and even some of these instances are less collaborative and more finishing or altering a map after the original creator has moved on. Sometimes, though, a few people just really hit it off and pass a level back and forth a la Double Impact. Metamorphism is such a product, the work of two then-acclaimed authors: Brad Spencer and Karthik Abhiram Krishna. META is a circa 2003 MAP01 replacement for Doom II and is vanilla compatible thanks to some hard-workin' folks.

The level doesn't have a story, instead giving a winking nod to Cervantes. It's a pretty big techbase map, though, and the E3 TNT: Evilution / Alien Vendetta sky sort of suggests the UAC-outpost-floating-in-Hellish-void that has made up KAK's more popular career. He his stride in 2002, publishing Congestion Control and following it up with a series of short maps bearing his distinctive and I daresay busy detailing style. Out of Phase III and CCT2 operate in the same sort of space. Brad was - and largely still is - known for his contributions to Alien Vendetta, responsible for much of the character of its second episode. His solo releases were at the time highly varied, the then most recent - Nexus - operating within an arcade-style framework with definite stages.

Metamorphism starts out with the player standing high in a hub of sorts with a teleporter at the bottom. There are four different directions in which you can push and the designers have thought to ensure that you get some sort of a basic weapon kit with each one. In fact, they've even had a bit of fun with implied narratives as far as pairing weapons and corpses from a previous fight. The big pickups are all spread out, though. It would be great to know how easy it is to snag the super shotgun, of course, as you'll be using it - or the regular shotty - a ton. The yellow key is found in the same wing where it's used but the other two must be brought back from elsewhere. One of them may take a bit longer to find than the other.

While the level is a joint venture, it's easy to see Karthik's fingerprints on most of the northeastern techbase section. The small, tiered rooms accessed by tiny lifts and severely claustrophobic gunplay are staples of his level design. With Spencer I'm not so sure but I would hazard a guess that the sewer tunnels that dominate the western portion of the map are his handiwork. Given my limited experience, it would be easy to ascribe all of the more open areas to Brad but the large outdoor area of Congestion Control 2 has seeded enough doubt in my mind to be unsure. I wouldn't be surprised if the monster teleporter clusterfuck at the southwestern corner of the sewers was Spencer's, though.

Nor could I deny him the cool bits of worldbuilding with the reactor core and infinite dark to the west or the eastern "torturous path is actually a giant closet" trap where you can look into the greater facility. I mean, they COULD be Abhiram's, but he has not struck me as much of a DoomCute designer outside of his secret tribute areas. A lot of the reason I like large maps like this is because they are fun to explore, with or without the "Legion of the Lost" epic background track. There isn't much straightforward about the start so just about every action you take is going to result in a surprise and there are a number of theme changes and sideshows to keep things fun. I was not expecting an old, bloody brick ruin in the middle of the sewers, for instance. Or its secret BFG and subsequent Cyberdemon showdown. Shoutout to the lost soul surprise in the sewers, another fun bit.

This is a tough level with a bunch of nasty surprises but I think that I'd only call a couple of them unfair. I already wrote about the sewer invasion, which sucks because you're likely to teleport to your imminent demise due to the way in which it starts. The other sharp shock is at the end of the dark tube in the Karthik section. You're probably going to be severely outgunned when the pair of arch-viles teleports in and their resurrection fodder consists of chaingunners so good luck should you be surprised. I'm good with the rest of the stuff though Abhiram's style of close-quarters fights - like the Baron in the elevator - may wear a bit thin with people who like more room to maneuver.

I really like the southern yard. You can hear the locked-in Cyberdemon close by and the initial wave of monsters gives you just enough leeway to figure that you could get ol' Cybie to do some infighting for you. This beats slaying them with the shotgun if that's all that you have (like me). The Cibberlord isn't a cakewalk, either, since there are enough tree props on the ground to hang up on if you get too cocky without feeling like an actively detrimental hazard. Of course, the whole area feels much smaller once you start dodging rockets. The plus for an outgunned player is the plasma gun pickup... which you will probably use up right there, provided that you're going for 100% kills.

Team Burger King feels like a match made in Mutiny with how their relatively different styles complement each other. It's also interesting to see how Metamorphism dialed back Abhiram's sort of calico texture style to something less random and more like an incidental room-based scheme. It's a worthy addition to the catalogues of both Brad and Karthik and definitely worth checking out for fans of slightly larger levels. I'm interested in seeing Karthik's team-up with his brother Varun but I think that I just like the idea of hybrid-style map development in general.

PARAGENESIS