ONEMANDOOM: WAD Reviews: Europa 3: The Dark Side of Vrack (EAEURO03.WAD)

EUROPA 3

THE DARK SIDE OF VRACK

by Erik Alm

Now here's an interesting piece of Doom history. This is an Erik Alm take on the Vrack series, as evidenced by the subtitle. If you're unfamiliar with Vrack - Fredrik Johansson's main claim to fame as an author - then the levels established a sort of orbital platform space station theme seen more recently in the Japanese Community Project. Europa 3 is also the third and final entry in Alm's EAEURO run, which began in 2001 and ends here in early 2002. As with the others, The Dark Side of Vrack is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II that is meant for play in a Boom-compatible port. Unlike Europa 2, it doesn't require the use of an independent texture pack.

EAEURO03 also lacks a cheeky framing narrative. The previous two entries covered the continuing misadventures into the doomed Europa colony (being one of Jupiter's more famous moons). You were originally sent on a suici- err, scouting mission to determine the force and depth of the invasion... and survived, laying waste to the perverted fortress. For the follow-up, the UAC granted you a supporting squad. Everything was looking good until some knucklehead named Doomboy alerted the demons, resulting in the deaths of all of your fellow soldiers. Still you persevered, clearing out another one of Hell's strongholds. This time you've been deployed to a space station, one of the Vrack series, which is not only infested but tainted by the demons' reality. Thankfully the conversion to grimy metal has not undermined its structural integrity or life support.

Europa 1 & 2 gave the player six different teleportation destinations to pick from. Each one had its own peculiarities and difficulties with some offering significant hardships. Or, in one case, kicking things into high gear by starting you out with the BFG. EAEURO03 is considerably simplified in this regard. You begin in the station with only one immediately obvious path. There's an alternate, secret route, however, that dumps you out to the main outdoor area with a megasphere and the BFG. It's obviously meant for folks who play toward the upper boundary of level skill ceilings and is a more transparent representation of his feelings toward shortcuts and things for speedrunners.

The previous Europa entries were sprawling affairs and played to a layout that while not necessarily "open" was built to facilitate Alm's desire to start the player out in one of six separate locations. Here, it's laid out for a more traditional / linear progression (excepting the early alternate path to the BFG). There's only one route through entrenched opposition to the outer orbital platform area. At that point it becomes a standard key hunt, though there is admittedly quite a bit of ground to cover. The keys send you into the dead ends of the station and eventually interlink the eastern cargo bay / hangar-style area to the "U"-shaped hallway nexus that serves as the level's atrium.

The combat is challenging but not overbearing. The toughest snags are typically a function of how awkward it can be to approach some of the fortifications. The core of the map is just north of the atrium and has obnoxious enemy placement both at the start and later on following a trigger-induced teleporter invasion. I say this as someone who got caught between conflicting strategies. I knew that I was likely to find rockets past the choke point (and rightly so) but played too sloppily to justify the aggressive partial-clear that I was attempting. The positioning really benefits a tactical approach given the revenants in the armory and opposite in the observation booth (alongside spectres) and the imps / Hell knights on the periphery. The space isn't exactly congested but you're exposed to a lot and maneuverability is restrained what with the mancubus pit in the center.

Exposure heavily figures into the outdoor area as well. There are a small number of cacodemons patrolling the perimeter - way less if you killed them from the western porthole off the starting area - as well as a handful of monster-bearing platforms. The latter, sporting revenants and Hell nobles, are spaced out so that enemies can provide an area denial function without being as stifling as, say, arch-viles. You won't have to endure many of the sorcerers; each one is introduced as part of a teleporter re-seed with only one serving as an immediate threat. To the same effect, you're also mostly free from having to worry about pain elementals. They only occur in a single segment and basically exist to be rushed with, say, the plasma gun.

It's a fun level. I like that you are afforded plenty of ammo to cut loose with the rocket launcher on reaching the outside. Alm also ensures that, once you have the regularly accessed BFG in hand, you have an upscaled invasion force to fend off including a few Cyberdemons. I appreciate the presence of an invul sphere for that final firefight and there are quite a few big health and armor pickups, some of which are displayed quite prominently on pedestals. Half of the 400 or so monsters are plain zombies and imps. This may not necessarily come across as you fight your way outside but this is way more relaxed when compared to the sheer slaughter spectacle of the strongest bits of Europa 1 & 2.

The architecture of EAEURO03 looks freakin' sharp and points the way toward the sort of decorative style that has been part and parcel of newschool slaughtermaps. It doesn't have near the same intensity of encounters as Stardate 20X6 but if you changed the white lights to a purple shade then it wouldn't look completely out of place in the set. I really dig the stepped structure look. The way it's also used to provide sloped surfaces and the like gives the station a unified look. Between the key switch stanchion and cargo bay, the eastern portion of the level has some of the most geometrically pleasing design. The torpedo tube-like chute that houses the blue key makes for one of the most memorable forays, if only due to the sheer suspense.

Of the three EAEURO levels, 03 is the easiest to recommend. Its encounter stylings are more approachable in scope than its peers. Its spectacle never really approaches the clouds of cacodemons that Johansson throws at you in Vrack 2's final stages. I actually think that Fredrik's combat is more cruel, inescapable nukage pit with VRACK homage notwithstanding. It's also much simpler to navigate than the landbound, gothic fortresses of 01 and 02 as Alm focused on establishing a single progression path as opposed to validating six different starting zones. If the difficulty still seems a bit off-putting then try it out on lower settings. HNTR is a romp with less than half the monsters, removing most of the trouble spots and keeping tons of easily-slaughtered Doom trash enemies. The experience is capped off with a lovely serenade a la Super Metroid's "Lower Norfair Theme". It's not quite as nostalgic for me as "The Devil's Factory" was with Europa 2 but my love affair with Metroid came a bit later in life.

EAEURO03 is more or less the end of Alm's singles career. Barring the maligned and forgotten Find It, Erik's next big move was One Bloody Night, thereafter moving onto the now legendary Scythe and team projects. It would have been grand to see him keep tackling the styles of other authors under the Europa banner. You know, the sort of meeting of the minds that produced Forsaken Overlook, Drown Stone, and Resurgence's "Festering Wicked Helix Sectors". Regardless, The Dark Side of Vrack is very cool and you should absolutely give it a shot unless you're opposed to Gothic, rusted orbital platforms.