Shadowcaster (SHADOW.WAD)

From 2000 to 2002, Stephen Clark (aka The Ultimate DooMer) had created an episode for the original Doom and then converted it to Doom II (Operation: Lightning) and crafted his epic, 21st-century Doom II megaWAD (Fragport). His next target for his own brand of experimentation and modernization was everyone's favorite Doom clone, Heretic. Shadowcaster is an episode 5 replacement for Shadows of the Serpent Riders, released in September of 2002. I'm not up on my Raven Software lore but I don't think that there were any major engine changes between the original release and the free expansion that would have necessitated using the E5 slot. Presumably, this was more of an aesthetic decision where the author could avoid having to contend with a clashing intermission screen.

Shadowcaster is a fantasy pastiche but has some interesting phrasing, declaring that the player character is part of "a sentient race of heretical elves", emphasis mine. Like the badass secret agent of Fragport, you are well-known for your heroism and thus constantly called up to perform feats of valor. The King of the realm calls you to court and tells you that a mage on the distant and unfortunately named island of Fagranc is summoning monsters from another dimension with the intent to conquer the kingdom. The quest will involve traveling to the island under the cover of magic and then laying waste to the dark mage's forces, the final goal being to both slay him and seal the portal.

In some ways, Clark's episode is a welcome break from the paramilitary Doom II trappings that dominated his previous two releases. The author's high fantasy takes you through several villages, caverns filled with both acid and lava, and even an elemental temple of water. The later levels take you through a massive castle, halls deeper in the dungeon, and eventually to a tower whose climax appears to invoke Stephen King's own epic fantasy The Dark Tower series. The Clark-Stephen has no fear of some of his favorite elements looking ridiculous when juxtaposed against the dark fantasy setting, however. Don't be surprised if, when wandering through the mines, you run across clearly-labeled "Rest Rooms" including a "Bog". He is glad to announce some of the more artificial elements like the "Gas Pod Gauntlet". I am only just now thinking about how weird it is for "Shadow Castle" to have every single one of its rooms clearly labeled over its door.

Like the rest of The Ultimate DooMer's previously-released material, Shadowcaster purports to be a "21st century" episode. Stephen's intent here was to approximate some aspects of more recent first-person shooters while folding in his own gameplay predilections. The results sometimes pushed against the boundaries of what constitutes good taste for level designers, especially nowadays, but it's clear that Clark was generally attempting to elevate the gameplay of Doom II. SHADOW is no different in its execution but there is an added wrinkle in having Raven's expanded toolkit. My admittedly limited experience with Heretic user levels suggests that their authors generally stick to the guidelines established by Raven's own game design. Stephen pushes these mechanics into new and sometimes uncomfortable directions.

The single most revolutionary thing that I saw in Shadowcaster was TUD's use of the exploding pods. "Watery Paradise" (E5M5) repurposes them as movable platforms, allowing the author to recreate crate puzzles in Heretic. These range from filling in pits to pushing together pod bridges, exploding pod trains that you hitch a ride on, and even propping open doors to keep them from closing. While clever, the mechanic fumbles in "The Great Hall" (E5M7) where you must consecutively push / escort three pods through an ophidian / undead warrior shooting gallery. The player feels especially vulnerable, there, and the dearth of health - and ammo - compounds the frustration of the experience. In general, though, I was blown away by Clark's exploitation of pod mechanics.

Stephen is relatively upfront about Shadowcaster's other gameplay element, though its full implication isn't immediately obvious. The .TXT talks about "manikins", what the community colloquially refers to as voodoo dolls. That's how they're initially used, standing blankly as hazards that cause you to question exactly how you're dodging projectiles or launching your own attacks. The manikins are ubiquitous, but in E5M7 you are forced to confront the totality of their secret purpose and realize just why the author has been leaving so many Morph Ova spread around the levels. Why, yes, you COULD make it under that gap if you were a chicken. Or, using the slower fall rate, coast across a considerable distance. One particular segment in "The Dark Tower" (E5M8) sends you on a clucking race past monsters, including a maulotaur, and through a miniature maze. I'd like to think that this particular mechanic was inspired by Duke3D's shrink ray puzzles. There is a third aspect to the manikins that comes up rarely but will require you to push them around with your staff. I don't know what if anything was standing in the way of Stephen doing voodoo doll scripting in the episode; it certainly seems like something his particular genius would have implemented.

I talked about the Morph Ova but there are multiple instances where acquired items have a specific purpose in another portion of the level. In one case, you need to use a torch to illuminate an otherwise pitch-black room so that you can perform some "Chasm"-style catwalking... hopefully making it back in time. In another, you must use a ring of invulnerability so that you can push a voodoo doll through Yet Another Catwalk where it will be safe from a more or less universal crusher. The closest that I've seen to something like that is one of the trials in Stormwalker's Heretic: Dark Deity's Bastion, minus the whole voodoo doll thing. The Wings of Wrath figure into several secret hunts - especially the road to the hidden "Steel Works" (E5M9) - and are required to complete the elemental challenge of "Crosswinds Village" (E5M4).

Four of the levels (E5M2-E5M5) feature this elemental trial motif. You must brave challenges associated with the classic earth / fire / air / water to lower four sequential barriers to a critical progression point. This consists of stuff like crusher gauntlets, lava damage floors, or using the Wings to find switches at varying heights in a blustery chasm. The execution is reminiscent of the structure of his "Crystal Maze" in Fragport's MAP32 except it's spread out across four maps. His puzzle play is not limited to these elemental trials, either. You'll find puzzle scenarios endemic to the fabric of Shadowcaster just as it is to all of Clark's works and the multi-stage switch mechanisms persist in the later portions of the episode.

As far as mazes go, well, they don't exist in this offering. At least, not in the sort of guileless form seen most often in Operation: Lightning or even Fragport. I would argue that the trident bridge of shadows seen in "Steel Works" (E5M9) is similar in spirit, as is the slow, convoluted water slide of "Watery Paradise" (E5M5). There are a few minor mazes, to be sure, but they have a timed sense of urgency and are too short to be truly confusing. Unlike, say, the three-floor linked-by-teleporter fortress in "Shadow Castle" (E5M6). I don't know whether having the separate tiers physically linked via something like portals would help the player's mental mapping anymore considering that you so rarely have to move between the floors. If anything, the monster placement is more of a hindrance to being able to explore and process each level.

Clark’s encounter design has always worked to provide an additional, “organic” aspect to the overall challenge of any given map. Shadowcaster feels even more aggressively weighted toward his Mission: Impossible level starts, from the very beginning of E5M1 (“Village of Light”) and its mummy melee with fire gargoyles at the player’s back. Weapon pickups are generally buried deep in each level with the player having to wade through considerable opposition. As I play through Stephen’s catalog, I have had a feeling that the UV-equivalent thing placement is meant to be a challenge for players who are already familiar with the level. The structure of E5M1, where the player cannot possibly have any carryovers, appears to confirm my suspicion.

If you want to experience some of the crazier puzzle mechanics without wading through the first half of the set then I strongly suggest that you ENGAGE on a lower difficulty setting. In fact, I would go so far as to caution any players from using Shadowcaster’s UV-equivalent, let alone Black Plague. Heretic is generally regarded as having unsatisfying combat due to the weapon feedback and more importantly the relative HP of its monsters. This is a major reason behind Not Jabba's tinkering with game mechanics in The Wayfarer episode. Clark’s combat does little to brook this stereotype, not that it wasn't a difficult task to begin with. Heretic just inherited more dungeon crawler DNA than Doom (and consequently Doom II) did, I guess.

Shadowcaster does suggest a solution to one particular mystery - that is, why all the green keys in Clark's work? Well, Heretic's default colors are red, blue, and green. I assume that Stephen fancied this scheme and thus carried the aesthetic forward into his 007: License to Spell Doom, thereafter backporting it via re-releases to Fragport and Operation: Lightning. It's just one more detail that makes his level design principles appear to be relatively immutable over his substantial first three releases. I was almost convinced, more than ever, that the song would remain the same for 007LTSD while playing Shadowcaster. Clark's potentially revolutionary exploitation of Heretic gameplay mechanics has suggested otherwise, however, so I'm stoked to see what he is capable of when he gets out of the vanilla Doom paradigm.

SHADOWCASTER

by Stephen Clark aka "The Ultimate DooMer"

E5M1

Village of Light

I was wondering what Clark's take on Heretic would look like. From what I can see here, it turns out that it's pretty much the exact same thing as Fragport, just with a much slower pace. This level has two parts. The first is a very small village with a watchtower-like structure. The pressure is on from the first shot as you're stuck with the wand vs. a whole horde of golems and mixed undead warriors. The various tiny buildings are also staffed with skeletons so that you are subject to erratic ethereal axes. Making any sort of headway involves a significant time investment, though you can use some of the spread-out time bombs to quickly thin out the mummies. As long as you don't get mobbed, that is. The second half of the level is a very long canyon crawl down one side and back the other. The player has to contend with golem and gargoyle obstacles on the initial approach, the wind trying to push you into the gorge, and entrenched undead lobbing axes opposite whichever side you're on. Thankfully, you finally get an ethereal crossbow in one of the caves running off the ravine. Stephen's dickish tendency for traps appears here, echoing Operation: Lightning's MAP04 ("Disaster Area") and its numerous collapsing walkways. You get a mulligan, though, in the form of a Wings of Wrath item that you can use to skip the whole ordeal.

Thiolite Mines

E5M2

A grueling gauntlet. There are a whole host of elements that make this level particularly obnoxious. The ethereal crossbow is secret, for one. While it isn't exactly far from the start, you will likely need to abuse the similarly secret gauntlets to grind through the multiple undead warriors. The dragon claw is also accessed nearby, but difficult to get for similar reasons. If you explore in any of the non-crossbow directions then you're going to be in for deep hurting, eleven wand style. Obviously, carrying over the crossbow from E5M1 will make a huge difference in how you start this outing. Clark adds a major wrinkle to navigating the level by linking several of the upper-tier areas via one-time bridges. They can all be revisited via the ground floor, but it sucks getting trapped in enemy territory without a decent weapon to your name. There's generally nothing special about the combat, which is mostly incidental, apart from a preponderance of iron liches. I have no idea if it's just how Stephen laid his levels out but I found them to be supremely annoying, here. The big hook is detailed in the early secret room with the gauntlet. Clark gives you four trials of Earth a la Fragport's MAP32 ("The Crystal Maze") to overcome. There's bamboo pole platforming; a collapsing, winding catwalk; a crusher tunnel with a vanishing margin for error; and a platform / crusher tour de force. Personally, the two groups of three iron liches that guard the two trial wings were way more frustrating to deal with.

E5M3

The Volcano

Clark deigns to give you the ethereal crossbow upfront in this level. The dragon's claw isn't particularly far away, either. Was that so hard? I had a bit more fun with this level than "Thiolite Mines" but it is not without its own trials of patience. Most of the earthen corridors consist of narrow catwalks between lava damage floors. You can step off and into the lava and back to dodge the reams of weredragon and undead warrior projectiles, but - in some situations - the pitfalls are inescapable. To add to the frying pan, the lava ball geysers are placed sporadically along the walkways, ensuring some level of constant danger in otherwise safe areas. "Volcano" feels more like a battle of attrition, but it's at least one that I felt like I could muscle through without too much sweat. There's one super-annoying iron lich outside a brick annex that leads to a Hellstaff (!) but the rest of the combat is corridor shooter stuff. With, uh, you dodging, fleet of foot, onto the lava. The elemental trial of fire is way less demanding than the earth equivalent in E5M2 and mostly boils down to how quickly you move across molten rock. I think that this is because Clark saved the true challenge for the secret exit. You need to find nine mostly-hidden switches, spread across the level, to fully open the way. I say mostly because a few of them are in plain sight. At least four of them require the wings of wrath to access otherwise inaccessible locations. One of these probably threw you for a loop when you saw it in the exit area of E5M2 but there's another that is the most dickishly clever of all. The switch that requires you to use a particular teleport face, well, bleh to that.

Steel Works

E5M9

Umm. This is a dark metal crypt, I guess, with a very simple layout. Players are subject to several monotypical monster packs that will leave them feeling perpetually outgunned. The hordes of sabreclaws early on really pour on the pressure, though I suppose that you could save on ammo by repurposing the ethereal crossbow crusher trap. In fact, I suspect that this was partly Stephen's intent. The Firemace appears here and is the level's main focus but, as usual, it feels more like a weapon that you're being forced to use. The most Clark thing here is a maze that uses catwalks in shadow that you can't see with the points of tridents directing you to the next bend. And then, uh, you have to make your way back while weredragons and undead warriors fire at you from the opposite side.

E5M4

Crosswinds Village

Ostensibly a level in Heretic's city theme. If you hadn't guessed from the title, then know that the element of the day is air. You didn't really get browbeaten by the theming in "earth" and "fire" was pretty predictable. I mean, the firing of the geysers and their spread was random, but it was all clearly visible. This fuckin' wind, though. Your movement outdoors is hampered by a series of crosswinds. From the moment you leave the safety of the opening ravine you are buffeted toward the east or west gorges on each side of the village. The lamp posts signify where the force swaps from one direction to the other. Take note that the force gets significantly stronger when you're near the edge. You know, like where all of the outdoor health items are located. The kinetic floor is an obnoxious but manageable confounding factor when you are flush with ammo and kitted out with weapons. Most of the monsters that you face on the outside are either golems or sabreclaws since enemy projectiles are generally worthless outside. It feels as though the wand start is heavily reliant on using the gauntlets, however, and Shadowcaster does not do battles of attrition very well. Particularly when your movement is erratic due to the acceleration of the wind. Most of the building interiors are painful to break into due to the sheer monster density inside and trying to duck in and out is rough when the wind keeps blowing you around. Pile this on top of the doofy voodoo doll gimmick and, well, it's a memorably painful experience. The trials are much simpler in comparison. The toughest aspect is obtaining the two Wings of Wrath. You have to walk a narrow catwalk while the winds blow you east, and the walk has several ninety-degree turns, at one point doubling back. When you have the power then you just have to flip four switches in alcoves at various heights. This opens the way to the pod race, an even simpler challenge where you rush against an explosive timer. The last 10% of this map is so much more fun than the rest of it.

Watery Paradise

E5M5

When Clark promised a 21st-century Heretic PWAD with innovative gameplay elements, well, he might have had this level in mind. This hydromancy is worth a look all on its own. The sanctuary is a mix of flowing water, low-friction ice, and explosive pods. The ice is a hindrance to combat but generally easy to compensate for as long as you keep your distance from monsters and dodge early. Two of the trials are built around slick surfaces. One of them is Clark's typical "Chasm"-thin tightrope walk. The other is a multi-stage timed switch sector machinery challenge with a voodoo doll in the center of the room as a confounding factor. Flowing water is a similarly obnoxious element. A late-level trap requires the player to make a strafe-sprinting leap to cross a large gap, but the other side's floor flows quick and straight into an inescapable death pit. You need to skirt the edge of the cistern right after you make it through. Even afterward you must fight the lethal currents of the rest of the chamber drain as you deal with a squad of ophidians.  On the more benign side of things is an amusement-park style "water slide" (more of a lazy river) that takes you slowly down a torturous path with pitch-black walls. It's the kind of thing that's difficult to rush through as there are a ton of hard ninety-degree turns and the walls remove much of your spatial context. My advice: sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Until it reaches the couple of monster stations, anyway. When you finally get to the Iron Lich kiosk the flowing water will be suitably annoying again. What makes this level wonderful is its use of exploding pods. The fact that you can push them when coupled with Heretic's deeper z-collision gave Clark the brilliant idea to use them for what are effectively crate puzzles. It's a true "Holy shit!" moment that Stephen attempts to teach you for the red key puzzle. The setup may be a bit inscrutable, however, as it requires you to push voodoo dolls out of the way without killing yourself. At Clark's most inspired, you must ride one of a carousel of pods as they float around a whirling pool. Twice you must push them to form a bridge to walk across. This isn't all that bad of a level to fight through in terms of combat. There's one relatively close-quarters maulotaur fight and three others in more spacious surroundings. Thankfully, the author declines to pit you against the dark servants on frozen fields. I think that the wand start trap is to waste your time on the first secret or the ophidians in the opening dragon claw room. If you want to, then come back with a later-acquired chaos device. The big settling pond chamber in the center of the map has a nice look and also serves as a decent arena for magical firefights. Least favorite fight, uh, the outdoor canyon area with the two voodoo dolls and the disciples that get blown clear across the level.

E5M6

Shadow Castle

This is a huge fortress with a ground level, second floor, and basement. The challenge is immediately ramped up in the opening. One room inside the castle has all of the regular weapons. You need to somehow make it past the rampart's undead warrior guards to raise the drawbridge and then fight through the fortress to the armaments. It helps to know just exactly what room the weapons are in, of course. The only tools available to you are the gauntlets and a tome of power. This ought to be more than enough firepower... provided that you know where you're going. The castle hallways are pretty wide-open so that Clark can throw packs of monsters, Iron Liches, and the occasional maulotaur at the player. The bull on the second floor feels like a more desperate encounter since you probably aren't expecting to cold run into a dark servant in the corridors. While the dungeon is more cramped for its minotaur encounter, there is at least one wide-open room with braziers to block its charge attack. I had more trouble with the sewer segment that closes out the level. There, both health and ammo are at a considerable premium, and you are subjected to both mandatory damage floors as well as two squads of four Iron Liches. Progression in this level is challenging as the player must make repeat visits to all three floors (linked by teleporter stairs). The first goal appears to be to enter the locked room in the library, after which the dungeon should become available. Eventually, once you've exhausted all avenues of exploration, you should be able to return to the second floor and grab the green key. The Clark-style puzzles are mostly found in the dungeon and are fairly benign. One requires you to use a torch to illuminate a room with a "Chasm"-style catwalk, so don't blow it when you get it! Another uses the push-crate aspect of the exploding pods differently than E3M5. I had fun with the adventure game stylings; shoutout to the secret Wings of Wrath and its double-secret purpose. The combat at the beginning and end was frustrating when coming in from a wand start, a common motif in Stephen's style. I've suspected since Fragport that Clark made these McGuyver-style hot starts as a challenge mode for players who already knew the level. They're still viable without foreknowledge as long as you're comfortable with a trial and error strategy.

The Great Hall

E5M7

This one ranges from dank catacombs to a huge network of hallways and staircases that reminds me vaguely of Heretic's E5M6 ("Colonnade"). Combat is quite difficult in spots as ammo is spread out and hidden everywhere. Also unsurprising for Clark, critical weapons are hidden deep in the level. Carryover players will have a much easier time with several gameplay elements including an especially tiresome execution of the pod puzzles debuted in E3M5. The early level segment includes a large, "C"-shaped room and, later on, an upside-down "T" chamber, both of which are lined with monster cages. It's not all that difficult to avoid the ophidian projectiles or undead warrior axes... provided that you're not trying to push a pod from one end of this circuit to the other. This is a feat that you must accomplish three times, taking care not to let the monsters strike you or the explosive. With enough ammo (and backtracking to a later-revealed secret elevator) you can disarm the cage traps. This is difficult if not impossible to accomplish for challenge-mode wand start players, however, so be warned. Monsters are numerous and fierce. Turret-style enemy placement abounds and it's obnoxious when they're ghosties and thus sacrosanct from Phoenix Rod projectiles. There are something like four maulotaurs stomping around the hallway / staircase network, too, which adds to the ammo / gun-hunt panic. Judicious use of tomes and invul rings will help but this requires you to sniff out some of Clark's secrets. The biggest help by far is the acquisition of the aforementioned Rod, whose platform is only accessible via distant timed trigger mechanics. For all my bitching, however, "The Great Hall" is devilishly clever in its voodoo doll usage. I'd been looking at these things across the episode for so long that I took for granted that they were just there to annoy me. I'd also seen low ceiling areas that looked like they were meant to be accessed via the chicken form. I had no idea, though, how on Earth I could do something like bounce Morph Ovum projectiles back at myself like Duke 3D's shrink ray. Well, gentle reader, you can't progress in this level unless you figure out how to Chicken yourself. You'll need to do so on at least three occasions, too, so beware if you thought of using the eggs to augment your combat abilities. I was especially surprised at using the Chicken mode to cross long distances.

E5M8

The Dark Tower

Opening with an enormous, spiral staircase. Rooms spur off on the eastern side and present you with a series of Clark-ish challenges that you must conquer. The first is a fairly humdrum vine and block maze. The second uses floors of ice to complicate the congested, semi-slaughter combat. The third is a boisterous outdoor total slaughter where you must acquire all three keys. Accessing each pillar - and the ring of invulnerability - spills even more hordes of monsters into the playing field for maximum chaos. The fourth and fifth challenges have Stephen at his most inspired. One of these intends for you to use your ring of invulnerability so that you can push a voodoo doll across a "Chasm"-style network of thin walkways. The other uses the Morph Ovum trick to rush you through a maze of death where you must avoid several monsters and almost certainly peck a gargoyle to pieces. I wasn't big on the level up until the huge brawl on the tower's exterior but between it and the subsequent puzzles I was having a ball. The final battle is at the top of "The Dark Tower" and is initially a straightforward fight vs. the Serpent Rider. Well, apart from the voodoo doll in the center of the chamber. Clever Clark uses the boss's scripted teleporting to have it escape, after which you must discover the purpose of the keys acquired in the third challenge. The final battlefield appears to occur among the pillars of reality in deference to the Stephen King book series from which this level gets its name. Observe, for instance, the beams running along the cardinal and intercardinal directions. The action itself is obnoxious as the air dance is attended to by hordes of maulotaurs and iron liches. Amongst all this chaos, you have to repeatedly seek out the Shadowcaster to do what damage you can. I'm not thrilled by the battle but it's less frustrating than many of the wand starts that I took upon myself. It makes for an epic conclusion and psychedelic visual, at least.

SHADOWS OF SHADOWS CASTING