CHAOTIC GROUNDS
by Mike "Use3D" Alfredson
Use is probably best known by word of mouth from his fantastic Nilla Doom episode, not to mention his fantastic contributions to community projects like the Community Chest series. To my total confusion, Alfredson has had two different megaWADs in the works. One of these is his rough and tough vanilla megaWAD, of which Nilla Doom was an excerpt, while the other is for limit-removing ports and a little easier ("classically-styled") and goes by Doom Beyond. The cut maps that he has released to the archives are all from Doom Beyond as they were all crafted before 2004, when Nilla Doom started production. This includes both Deep Core 1 but probably not Hell Pit as it predates Doom Beyond's genesis in 1997.
2019 was sort of a grand clearing out of the dustier parts of the author's archive, releasing five individual levels, four of which were cut from the then-22-year old megaWAD. Chaotic Grounds is among the oldest of these, originally crafted in 1997 and then updated once before being cut from DB. It's a MAP18 replacement for Doom II because, well, it takes just a smidge of inspiration from "The Courtyard". And, uh, judging by the way the monster teleporters are structured in the final area, it may have a bit in common with Doom 64's MAP28, "The Absolution", as well. Use3D suggest that there may be a cameo from the Visplane Overlord so it's probably safer to assume that it's for a limit-removing port.
The only thing that I know about Doom Beyond's plot is that it was (originally, anyway) supposed to be based on the Doom II: Hell on Earth novel, first published in 1995. From what I can gather, it started out fairly faithful to the plot and then slipped toward complete batshit insanity science fiction. In this case, the heroes spend a lot of time fighting alongside Mormons and apparently battling it out in Disneyland. I'm sure that it would make for a fun ironic read. As to how faithful the megaWAD is (or was) supposed to be to the re-sourced material, well, based on DoomWiki's plot summary no one ever goes to Hell, and Use3D's notes for Temple of Sin describes it as a cut level from the Hell episode. I could go into why an adaptation of the Doom novels that has an actual, factual Hell would be highly inaccurate but that would be spoiling some great "WTF?" moments. At this point, Doom Beyond feels like it was intended to be a reimagining of Doom II that uses superficial details from the novel to give the first and second episodes some structure.
As for this installment, Chaotic Grounds is a corrupted city level. I mean, it's got lots of brick and metal, a plethora of pagan wall reliefs, but no unifying texture scheme. How much of this is due to the author removing megaWAD resources, I wonder? The latter part makes it stand apart from official Doom II levels on a superficial basis, at least ones that occur mostly indoors. I feel like it follows in the grand tradition of Sandy Petersen levels, however, in making every room its own little adventure. It's an inversion of the "Sandybox", the Doom II "funhouse". There's, like, one "plain" room in the whole bunch, the southernmost one behind the red key door. The rest all have some sort of defining feature whether it's crazy lighting or neat architecture. All throughout you get Use3D's punchy combat to keep you engaged.
My favorite room is the southwest one where you can get the BFG. The western half with the damage floor is just so wonderfully abstract with its recessed tan metal door-wall panel and the riveted steel block columns dangling from the ceiling. The starting area is pretty cool, too. It has a chunky brick and metal look with those metal grated light columns hanging from the ceiling, quite the classic appearance. The southeastern area sort of grounds the level with something like a storage yard at a dock (the crates coming from where???). It also has a side room that feels distinctly Sandy-like where recessed alcoves serve as a staging ground for a boatload of lost souls as well as a small squad of zombies and imps.
The courtyard is the most recognizably "Courtyard" element of the level, primarily because of the skin-textured platform that sits at the north end with the smaller buildings / shacks on top. Use3D inverts the organization of the level by making the outer, central structure the last area visited, but it still influences the action in the main body of the level through the barred windows. If you let yourself get distracted then you're sure to catch some arachnotron plasma upside the head, and the trash monsters up on the platform while more easily ignored are just as capable of sniping at the player. Based on this and the three ominous looking shacks on the floor (reminiscent to me of Doom 64), you may psyche yourself into believing that you have some kind of a crazy showdown waiting for you.
Well, pretty much all of the fighting that leads up to the climax overshadows the finale. I imagine that all of the monsters were supposed to teleport relatively quickly but in practice they seemed to arrive in dribs and drabs. I think that the two mancubi that pop up on "Downtown"-ish platforms would have made nice confounding factors but I'm pretty sure that I dispatched both of them before a single beastie teleported in. It's an interesting contrast against the original "Courtyard", where the yard is entered at the beginning of the map; a whole bunch of monsters boil in, at an even faster rate if you start flailing around; and the calico rooms become more unified side areas.
Most of the fun (difficult?) fights in this level are sawtooths that force the player to think on their feet. Two of these involve the player stepping onto the end of a hallway only for it to lower into an ambush. Use3D is pretty big on getting players to commit to entering enemy territory. I noticed a sort of motif across Deep Core 1, Hell Pit, and to a lesser extent Soulcage, where "one must be willing to descend into hospitable depths in order to confront adversity". The two slow pit lifts enforce this but you also get an echo of Deep Core 1's paired up / down elevators. You start on a raised platform, must step down into a sort of trenchway, ride elevators up into an atrium full of meaty monsters, and then must take a lift back down into either side of the barred skull column periphery.
One of the other distinguishing features of this level is that Use3D gives you the plasma gun at the very start. This was a great move in Nilla Doom and it ramps up the fun quotient in "classic" mapsets. The PG tends to be a late-level acquisition and I tend to hoard cell ammo just in case. By firmly pressing it into the player's hands at the start of the map along with a big cell, you are encouraged to make it one of your workhorse weapons. And, again, that's awesome. There is actually a BFG in the level, too, with a sort of chain of secrets required to access it, but it didn't feel all that useful with the map's combat stylings.
What I get out of these cut Use3D levels is that Alfredson has been a fun author for a long time. If you are looking for classic Doom II action then I would be hard-pressed to dissuade you from giving Chaotic Grounds a shot. I look forward to playing the other three castoffs and, who knows, maybe one day he'll see fit to give Doom Beyond some time in the light of day.
PUTTING ON CHAOTIC AIRS
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