Blind Alley V., "Necrophobia" (BNDALYV.WAD)

BLIND ALLEY V.

NECROPHOBIA

by Gene Bird

The Blind Alley series was released from 2002-2004 and eventually accrued some fifteen levels, all of which were built for a mapset that Bird had been making since ~1997. Necrophobia was the eleventh to see publication, released about a month after Deja Vu in May of 2003. Like the rest of these levels it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. Gene intimates through the .TXT that the V in the naming scheme indicates that it's a MAP31 replacement (1-9, A-W) though folks who have peeked ahead know that this falls apart for X and Y. BNDALYV is extra special as it's the last level that GB uploaded prior to the release of the first Community Chest. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also the last of his published works to find its way into CCHEST!

The plot has become even more tertiary to the experience as the author sends you through more abstract locales, including something like a bad dream, but Blind Alley started out as urban defense. Demons attack your city and you get your gun to go on an offensive defense. Your whirlwind counterattack leads you through a Boardwalk, a Warf, city sewers inundated with Nukage, and even a corporate building infested by the Spirit World. Necrophobia doesn't exactly fit within the framework as it was supposed to be a secret level but that's quite alright. It's not like his version of The Pit made a whole lot of sense except, I suppose, as some kind of secret subterranean military network.

BNDALYV is still Gene Bird to the core in terms of linear progression. The nexus of the map is a cool outdoor yard area with five different paths branching off of it. These are a mix physically connected wings as well as isolated teleporter annexes. Of course, they can only be done in the order that Gene has allowed, but the execution here works way better than Monster Mansion's dull assemblage of sparsely-decorated hotel rooms. The end result is less a handful of longer level fragments joined together by warp pads, which has been typical of GB's style, and more a hub whose elements must be approached in a linear fashion. Not that this would be any different from a Boom map that used six keys to lock off the spokes.

Bird sometimes has a list of influences in his .TXTs but historians may be interested to see Anders Johnson's "Whispering Shadows" from Alien Vendetta as well as The Plutonia Experiment. If you've enjoyed Gene's relatively relaxed and super shotgun-heavy gameplay then rest assured that there is little of PLUTONIA or AV in the action of this outing. Death Tormention II is also mentioned and I see a bit of what I feel may be its flavor of Thy Flesh Consumed in the architecture of this PWAD in the cage segment found in what might be called the southwest. That particular area appears to be lovingly cribbed from Kristian Aro's "Villa of Schotchies" (E4M3).

The connection between "Whispering Shadows" is less clear apart from the ceiling detailing that opens the level. Well, that and maybe the wicked-ass teleporter annex accessed from the marble room prior to the main hub. The mysterious marble temple is way cooler than I expected a Gene Bird setpiece to be if only because of the stairs leading up to the wall of blood which you must walk through in order to leave. As I read the names of the Casalis, something clicked about the look of the main hub area and southwestern room with the paired descending staircases. It's less literal than the PE4_DT2 reference but the rooms wouldn't look out of place in The Plutonia Experiment with a bit of retexturing and a couple more handfuls of beefy monsters.

As far as combat goes, Gene seems a bit more willing to twist the player into uncomfortable positions. The first outdoor walkway with the opposed commandos and revenants starts to hammer home what Bird has been saying for ages - "The harder you push the harder the map pushes back." We've come quite a ways from the easily-slaughtered hordes of mixed monster packs from some of the earlier Blind Alley releases. You'll see things like skeletons in elevated positions with monsters on the floor to distract you into catching a rocket to the back of your head. Imps fulfill a similar but lesser function, not that they don't form a large portion of the attack forces. You're generally free to retreat, though, through the door or teleporter from which you came in. Unlike more recent trends in encounter design, the author does not go out of his way to punish and / or prevent safe playstyles.

Necrophobia is probably the closest entry so far to meeting whatever contemporary standards existed in 2003 for gameplay and architecture. Certainly one could argue that this was due to Gene drawing direct influence from now-classic mapsets. As such, I recommend it for folks who are cautious about looking into Bird's catalogue. If you were to judge the entirety of the Blind Alley series based on one level then you could do worse than this one.

FEAR OF A DREAD PLANET