E2M1ER (E2M1ER.WAD)

E2M1ER

by Esa Repo aka "Espi"

Espi kicked off his career with the experimental Barons o' Fun, a level where the object was to goad goat men into tearing each other apart over barrel splash damage. Esa wouldn't upload another single player level to /idgames until nearly a year later in mid-2001, where he dusted off "an old PWAD" for release alongside an updated-but-previously-released-elsewhere KARMEA. E2M1ER is an E2M1 replacement, natch, and a full-fledged level as compared to BRNSOFUN's arcade-style execution. Between this level and his Laitos, which originally appeared in the DoomCenter E1 Mapping Contest, it's clear that Espi liked making OG Doom levels in his idiosyncratic style. I wonder how they compare to his entries in the piecemealed Flashback project.

E2M1ER does not have a given plot but it has Espi's penchant for storytelling through thing placement. You're in an overrun UAC facility complete with occasional security checkpoints. These figure into the level's DoomCute factor with individual, adjacent buttons that open and then close nearby doors. There are occasional instances where you locate lone holdout marines that experienced a grisly last stand. One lower chamber is the location of a brutal slaughter / torture room. Given where zombie troopers come from, it's clear that the station underwent an infernal invasion resulting in the corruption or execution of all site personnel.

The depth of detailing that Espi would come to be known for isn't necessarily apparent but the level's layout is an absolute treat to explore. It's highly interconnected through windows and multiple key doors link sections in order to facilitate backtracking, should that be your desire. You are generally capable of visiting any area you can see, demonstrated early on through the imp-infested outdoor ledge glimpsed from the starting area. The one major exception is a world-building outdoor area seen toward the end of the level. To ease the burden of mental mapping, the level is divided pretty cleanly into southern and northern complexes, the split accomplished by a large, outdoor yard. It's one of the level's most expansive moments as you can see straight across into the northern building at one points, stirring up the monsters therein.

As I noted with his LAITOS as it originally featured in DoomCenter's E1 Mapping Contest, the bulk of Repo's window-dressing consists of judicious and understated texture usage. While there are a handful of recessed panels, none of them are the sort of floor-to-ceiling light sconces made popular by John Anderson. Espi is also pretty big here on using upper / lower wall texture cheats, something that confused the Hell out of me when I first started playing Doom user maps. For the uninitiated, this involves embedding a sector in a wall and smooshing the floor and ceiling together so that you can split the wall into upper and lower segments for additional detailing.

There are a few DoomCute specifics in the level's sector detailing that make for some neat novelties. I already mentioned the two-button security doors but Repo has a few realistically-designed industrial stairwells as well as some computer stations. The early descent into a techguts passageway connecting to the southeastern multimedia room made the beginning of the map feel cool and unusual merely through repurposed resources. The cramped corridors mean that the architecture doesn't often get a chance to shine but I really liked the circular foyer that adjoins the southern complex to the central yard. The size of the northwestern room and its symmetric grand staircases convey its importance as a location as befits the finale.

All of the interconnections that make E2M1ER so visually interesting are also a major source of its moderately-challenging difficulty. Each window is a vector for shotgun guy blasts or imp / cacodemon projectiles and if you aren't vigilant then you're probably going to catch a sucker punch or three. Esa isn't big on staged fights, here, but there is a mid-level teleport ambush and re-seed to catch the player off-guard. The biggest fight involves two silos full of cacodemons and makes for a pretty meaty grind, regardless of how readily the plasma gun and rocket launcher were entrusted to the player. Once you blow your cells and explosives it's down to a long, drawn-out shotgun shootout.

I had no idea where Esa was going to go after Barons o' Fun but I could have known that between his EPISMAP from 10 Sectors Part 2 and LAITOS that he was going to come out swinging. So much of the skeleton of Suspended In Dusk is already apparent in these layouts, too. I really liked E2M1ER and there's a good chance that you will, too, if you're down with picking your way through infested UAC outposts. Go ahead and give it a shot!

THE PREM18ER