Short 'n Quick (SNQ.WAD)

SHORT 'N QUICK

by Varun Abhiram Krishna

Varun had a Doom career that ran roughly concurrent with his brother, Karthik, and each brother was ultimately enshrined in the annals of Doom history. Varun wasn't quite as prolific an author as his brother, starting out in 2001 with The Anomaly: Part II. Part of this appears to have been his participation in the ill-fated The Ninth Gate project from which his Cacoward-winning The Outer Darkness originates. His follow-up to ANOMALY2 came roughly a year later in April of 2002, the aptly-titled Short 'n Quick (not to be confused with Malcolm Sailor's similarly-named Quick is Good). This MAP01 replacement appears to have been intended as part of a series if the TITLEPIC is any indication. I suppose that UAC: Missions is as good a name for a no-nonsense series of levels as any.

This mission doesn't have an included plot but it takes place in an infested - but not corrupted - techbase a la Doom II's first episode. It belongs to the same genre of many of Pablo Dictter's levels in that it is both short and includes a preponderance of crates. Varun's architecture looks more varied as the map does not appear to be composed almost entirely of hallways. The two larger chambers, however, are arguably corridors in and of themselves, albeit cleverly disguised ones. There is a basic interconnection where the player must access a balcony seen very early on and which is opposite another ledge. The teleporter jump to the level's coda also feels like a classic Pablo move. I wouldn't be surprised to know that he was an influence on Varun given that they worked together in the same online social circle.

SNQ is a tough nut to crack. Tuning difficulty is one of the trickiest parts of Doom level design and has only gotten harder as the depth of player skill has increased. I think that there's more forgiveness, though, when there are only something like 52 monsters to wade through. It's not like you can accidentally spend a ton of time playing without saving only to get mown down in a trap that you couldn't quickly cope with. It also helps when a lot of the difficulty is frontloaded. The antechamber to the guard rail room sets the tone with the chaingunners tucked into corners and Varun doubles down with the cramped combat shotgun waltz with the revenants just inside the main room.

The dual doors are an interesting architectural decision. They give the skeletons two avenues of access to the safe room but also make it much easier to joust with the two Hell knights at the back of the rail room. These two elements combine to create a whiplash opening fight with congested, newschool-type player pressure followed by a more deliberate, tactical flavoring. Varun's other two memorable encounters are also highly dependent on the shape of the room. The cargo bay is awkward for positioning an arachnotron on the other side of a long, "C"-shaped railing with a mancubus - among other things - running interference on the straight. A tactical approach is viable with using the regular shotgun and chaingun at the door... but so is running up to the mancubus and using its body for cover!

The last of the fights is probably the biggest gut-punch as long as you are intent on killing all of the monsters before you exit. The room - arguably a foyer - quickly fans out to the north and south with the sloping stairs. The gently curved shape of the eastern walls basically precludes using them for cover against the arch-vile miniboss so you're going to have to rely on the eagerness with which it resurrects monsters. And, uh, it wouldn't hurt to have a lot of luck. There are purportedly two secrets in the level but I didn't find either before exiting so I have no idea if there's something like an invul or at least a megasphere right before the final brawl.

Short 'n Quick is exactly what it purports to be. It's interesting seeing Varun tackle a more highly-detailed environment and, while it lacks the interesting sector machinery found in The Anomaly: Part II, some players may appreciate the lack of dungeon crawler-style death traps and the like. If you want a fast and punchy Doom II experience that also rewards tactical play then give SNQ a shot.

SNQ OR SWIM