Blind Alley U., "Deja Vu" (BNDALYU.WAD)

BLIND ALLEY U.

DEJA VU

by Gene Bird

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines déjà vu as "the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time"; "a feeling that one has seen or heard something before"; or, "something overly or unpleasantly familiar". It is also the title of the tenth level in Gene Bird's Blind Alley series. BNDALYU is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II, released in April of 2003. The character U places it in the MAP30 slot of the theoretical compiled mapset that each of these levels were published from, though this scheme became less definitive as GB continued to upload stuff. Unlike the previous level, Waste Processing, Deja Vu also saw release as MAP04 of Community Chest 2. Slightly more than half of Gene's output was either part of CCHEST or CCHEST2, making him a foundational feature of this Doomworld institution.

Blind Alley's plot is pretty common for something that evokes, for other people at least, the aesthetic sense of 1995-1996. It's up to your imagination as to whether the timeframe is concurrent with Hell on Earth - making you a parallel protagonist - or if it's a post-invasion angle, a fable of the reconstruction if you will. This opens the door for the player character to be Doomguy, not that the situation has to be tethered to any sort of official timeline given the infinite demons in the multiverse hypothesis endorsed by id. Whatever the setting, you are relaxing at home when demons attack. Zounds! You grab a weapon with intent to prove yourself a hometown hero and oust the demons from your neighborhood.

Deja Vu is kind of like a gimmick map but the most obvious aspect is over and done within the first quarter of its gameplay. The opening action proceeds through a series of similarly-constructed and themed rooms. It's actually three chambers that have been mirrored, with you making your way through the images in reverse. They aren't absolutely identical, so the end result is something like a distorted echo. This isn't immediately obvious since the connected  third and fourth chambers are flat as compared to the first and sixth with their imaginative spiral staircase / split platform architecture. You finish this sequence by exiting through the refraction of the entrance door.

Bird's opening segment is a deconstruction of the progression motif that runs through the rest of the level. Here, you must return to the beginning. Backtracking is not typically an exceptional element of the levels that I review unless it is either enormously clever or egregiously cumbersome. I may generally mention that the author uses mechanical methods to swiftly or elegantly return the player to a prior portion of the work. In Gene's generally linear shooter-on-rails style it is worthy of comment, particularly since - as a theme - it smartly ties the map together. Much of his output has left me with the impression of feeling disconnected as it often consists of linear room sequences that are jointed together by teleporters.

BNDALYU still uses this as a cornerstone of its layout but it is also curiously inventive, I assume because Gene was becoming more comfortable as a level designer. One of the game spaces consists of a long, upper hallway complete with windows that coils around a much larger outdoor yard. This sort of interconnection has been previously absent in Bird's work and while it doesn't really affect the combat it makes the environment more engrossing on a fundamental level. More to the point, the lower yard area has an obviously sealed door panel next to the yellow key door. You will return here at the end of the map, solving its mystery, and the author accomplishes this by dropping you there with the final teleporter.

The second major level portion is more understated but finishes with a bit where you walk through a windowed corridor that coils around a much smaller yet still outer yard. There's Deja Vu here but also in the fact that walking the length of the constricting hallway and flipping the switch lowers a wall that returns you to the exact spot that you came in at. The level's third and final segment begins with you in a slice of MYHOUSE with a DoomCute bedroom and adjoining bathroom. At first glance it's PWAD randomness but there's a clear evocation here of the association of déjà vu with dreams and the surreal nature of BNDALYU's mirrored opening. The ghost of an architectural motif asserts itself once again at the end of the crossed, cage-pocked hallways with another corridor-bound and windowed yard. This time, however, you must do a bit of physical backtracking before reaching the previously hidden teleporter that returns you to the panel by the yellow key door.

Gene may have played around a bit with the ways in which you progress through the level but the combat is still reliably a super shotgun-fueled popcorn flick, always a comfort to me. The metal wall braces in the opening areas and gargoyle columns demands a bit more finesse in dodging but the player is generally capable of retreating through a doorway and creating a fatal funnel. This may make things a bit sloggy but more capable combatants can speed up the process, especially if you're adept at dodging revenant rockets in corridors. I kind of wish that there had been a bigger brawl in the yard area since it seemed suited for such an occasion but Bird has a couple of good surprises to keep you on your toes. The sewage catwalk ambush is a good one but I'm also partial to his tendency to hide monsters behind room-sized elevator platforms, exploring the player's agency in triggering traps.

Deja Vu is a nice-looking level when compared to the breadth of the Blind Alley series. The author has gotten away from a lot of the plain borders of his previous maps with ubiquitous metal struts. The MYHOUSE segment feels like the plainest bit of the entire map which is thematically consistent as it echoes the waking from a dream to the humdrum reality of real life. I really enjoyed the architecture of the opening two-tiered room and its exit echo. It elevates Gene's exploration of curved sectors and makes for interesting room shapes alongside the adjacent chambers that curve around them. It was also neat to see the big outdoor yard and its quintet of freestanding structures, including a curious wooden bridge / step pyramid thing.

It's been really cool seeing Bird develop his authorial style over these ten entries in the Blind Alley series and I am intrigued to see what the last five may hold. That's not to forget the extra special CCHEST2 exclusive, "Desecration" (MAP25). Again, I doubt whether Deja Vu would make a convert from someone looking back through the lens of the aesthetic heights of Sunlust or Ancient Aliens, but it's been a joy for myself.

B.A. UNIVERSITY