Blind Alley W., "Redemption" (BNDALYW.WAD)

BLIND ALLEY W.

REDEMPTION

by Gene Bird

If we take the Blind Alley letter scheme to its logical conclusion then BNDALYW ought to have been developed as the series' MAP32, a super secret level. The .TXT, however, informs us that it was originally slated as a MAP20 replacement, which would make it brought to you by the letter K (BNDALYO being built for MAP24). I am guessing that Gene just felt like keeping on the same roll that he had been on since publishing Waste Processing, Deja Vu, and Necrophobia. BNDALYW's other name is Redemption and it is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II, originally released almost two years after the prior BNDALYV.

The Blind Alley series started out with a sort of DoomCute grounding with the player fending off an infernal incursion within his or her hometown. Local parks, sewer tunnels, libraries, boardwalks - those sorts of things. Gene has had a lot of abstract level design to balance out the sector-defined realism but these later entries are even less reflective of reality. Redemption is largely indistinguishable from the room-by-room texture scheme of the previous levels apart from a preponderance of green marble. It could be a palace, a tomb, a crypt, or some other infested outpost for you to fight through. Maybe part of the reason that the demons invaded is because your hometown was built above the ruins of a sleeping demon city! This would explain a lot, actually.

Redemption is somewhat of a return to form as far as the general layout of a Gene Bird level. I say this in deference to the hub-like arrangement found partway through Necrophobia, which made it an outstanding entry in the Blind Alley series. It isn't exactly a straight chute, though. The author has several occasions where you visit a sizable side-chamber before you can return to the main road. He also plays around with the typical "go here and flip a switch" progression scheme. There's an unusually inspired bit in a room with a river of blood where the upper tier is broken up by two inset buildings. Not only does it look neat when you first see it but it makes the map feel more lived in as you fight through both, err, guard posts before returning to the first one in your push forward.

Gene also continues to practice tricks that aren't necessarily dangerous to the player but instead work to knock you off balance. The very beginning area confronts you with a nondescript switch and a red key door. Triggering the former does not open up a hidden chamber. Rather, it lowers the entire floor as a lift and sends you down to a basement alcove where you begin your journey through the first blind alley. There's a wicked cool-looking marble area with crossed staircases and a balcony that appears to be an homage to John Anderson's "And Hell Followed" from Thy Flesh Consumed. You see deep pits at first glance in the corners but they soon rise to introduce a handful of beasties to draw your attention away from the projectile-throwing badder beasts on the upper level.

The super shotgun is still ol' reliable, with Gene wasting no time in pressing it into your hands, but his insistence on occasionally giving the monsters the high ground makes things less comfortable. There are a couple of gnarly fights, too, with the thickest action taking place in the final corridor. Between the closet full of cacodemons, the teleporter pincer attack, and the horde of absolute beef lurking in the exit room, you'll get to put all that stockpiled ammo to good use. The rocket launcher really shines, here, and there are plenty of spaces where you'd be well-served by wading into single combat with the plasma gun.

Redemption may not have wowed me with its layout but the individual rooms are more interesting than the sort of architecture that Gene was kicking out in the first half or so of the Blind Alley series. All of the green marble and colonnade rooms give it a somewhat unified aesthetic while also evoking the opening segment of Deja Vu. I can't help but smile at that ridiculous room shape that is immediately prior to the outdoor blood river area. I also like the weird arch-vile wall shrine in the southernmost hallway / tip cobblestone dungeon. There could have been some more intense fighting there, I think, given that the grid look makes it feel more like a Wolf3D to Doom II conversion with all the available space.

BNDALYW occupies an unusual space that mixes the architectural ingenuity that Bird is beginning to show with a more traditionally GB-style layout. The combat is a shade more interesting, though, and it's interesting to see Gene giving the level a more or less unified character. It may not be my absolute favorite of the series - so far - but I can see why it wound up in Community Chest 2. If you're up for some easygoing-but-not-visually-astonishing action then you ought to give it a look.

THAT WHICH REDEEMS