pus06 (PUS06.WAD)

pus06 is one of those PWADs that Russian author Memfis published to little or no fanfare via a Doomworld thread, first debuting in July of 2013. It didn't make it to /idgames until about a year later in June of 2014 during the great uploadening. Memfis crafted a ton of small-scale releases from 2011 to through 2014, but he refrained from publishing more than half of them on the archives until mid-2014. From what I gather, this was due to a variety of factors, but the end result was an epic Newstuff flood that scifista42 took ownership of. pus06 is a two-map minisode for Doom II and its target port is prboom-plus -complevel 2, so... limit-removing.

Memfis offered precious little information regarding this in its release thread beyond a cryptic statement that "you may have seen part of map01 before". I took this to mean that he had adapted part of or all of one of his previous levels into MAP01, but a cursory comparison between all the layouts of his pre-pus06 levels was not forthcoming. Without any official word from the author, I won't know if it was from one of Memfis's own levels or perhaps someone else's. The .txt associates the "pus" of the title with common, crass English slang. This may be an oblique hint, but it could also be a red herring, maybe to cover for something that's ultimately banal.

These two maps are on opposing poles of the Memfis spectrum. MAP01 is paced more like one of his resource-scarce levels, full of lower-tier monsters that do a great job of emphasizing how little health you have laying around. A single revenant and, later, a cacodemon offer some variety with a light touch. In stark contrast, you have the hot start of MAP02, whose first act feels more like one of franckFRAG's Swift Death levels. There are quite a bit of monsters, some of which are forced to lurk at the periphery, and your only available weapon is, one way or another, in the arms of your opponents. The rest of the level offers an interesting variety of combat scenarios. Are you pushed up against the walls while trying to slay clogs of imps while being chased by a Hell knight? What if we just follow that up by taking the walls away, only to show that the other side is a morass of nukage, cacodemons, and beasties blocking the two ledges you can run to?

It would be easy to just dismiss the theme of these levels as hodge-podges but there is a sort of sense that you are in a universe that is on the cusp of transitioning from sane technology and cities to infernal chaos. MAP01 has a techbase complete with crate yard on one end and a gothic brick fortress with evil eyes on the other, the connective tissue having tech panels that appear to be cut into rock and dirt. That's the evil turning your tunnels into caverns, folks. MAP02's biggest "clean" areas consist of city facades that are outside the normal area of play as glimpsed from the empty fenced-in lot that you start in.

One of the /idgames reviews mentioned Kama Sutra, and I'm somewhat intrigued by the comparison as warranted by the city area (and relating MAP30 to the crass .TXT statement), but I don't feel like Memfis really emulates the aesthetic or combat stylings of KSUTRA. Like, there are some slightly elaborate props, but I'd need to see some more elaborate DoomCute to really be sold on it. Maybe I should be comparing the Berserk pack start to the Tyson-ish "King Arena". There is a certain similar way in which the corruption of the city sort of mounts as you approach the marbleized temple.

MAP02 is a stronger draw, I think, due to its thoughtful encounter design and its unusual (for Memfis, at least) teleporter puzzle. There is a good chance that you'll find the opening fight of MAP02 a tough pill to swallow, and I can only imagine that playing with carryovers--given the meager supply of health in MAP01--complicates things. I wonder if this is some sort of larger-scope poke at the player, one of those situations where you may be genuinely better off pistol starting. Provided that you can figure out a strategy for handling the opening clusterfuck, of course. I wouldn't put it past the author, given his taste for the off-beat.

Anyway, PUS06 is a serviceable work from Memfis that offers two different combat experiences on his particular spectrum. I really enjoyed these and, as usual, would have loved to see this executed over a larger-scale project. This feels just right for Memfis, though.

PUS06

by "Memfis"

MAP01

This is a sort of earthy techbase level that feels pretty brutal in spite of its relatively light complement of beasties. It's all Doom II trash except for one cacodemon and one revenant. The zombimen are as dangerous as they've ever been; this isn't the sort of map that you can just blunder around in. Part of the design seems to specifically target players who are wise to Memfis's ammo austerity antics. Berserk pack at the start? Don't mind if I do! Except, uh, leave Tyson to the pros and save that thing for when your health has been shaved down. It's got sort of a crazy texture theme. Like, the outer yard has the look of a classic brick fortress complete with wood and metal guardhouse, but the starting area has computers embedded in dirt, a scrolling FIREBLU hole, a marble shrine to an evil eye, and dingy green bathroom-like wall tiles in the upper, techbase portion that leads to a sunken crate yard. It's like Hell is in the process of taking over and subverting reality but hasn't quite worked its way to the southern half of the base and isn't quite sure what to do with the bits that connect the northwestern facade to the remaining tech.

MAP02

The previous level was fairly close to the Memfis experience on the lighter side of things while still packing a bit of heat through organic monster placement. THIS one, though, is more in line with his rough and rowdy maps a la Sticky Blood or Download. The opening has more in common with something like Swift Death where a courtyard has been liberally staffed with monsters, including an arachnotron and a revenant peeking in. If you try to run for cover down one alleyway you'll wake up an unfriendly neighborhood arch-vile. You'll need to find a way to take the shotgun while minimizing the damage you take and then clear what you dare, keeping in mind that the SSG is practically unattainable at the beginning. At this point Memfis puts you into a thematically interesting sawtooth. It starts out as a player pressure series of corridors, a Hell knight looking pretty ominous at the onset, and then all of the walls fall away into a neat bit of threatening but not crazy player exposure. At this point, your last greatest challenge involves figuring out how to get the combat shotgun in the starting area without letting the arch-vile resurrect too many monsters. The big open exit room has nothing on the rest of the map. This level has the author playing with a few more offbeat ideas. One of these is a teleporter puzzle to get to the yellow skull key. I'm not entirely sure how it's SUPPOSED to be solved, but it isn't complex enough that you won't be able to bluster through it. There is also a lot of required goating / catting around, e.g. Doom "platforming", which I generally appreciate. Aesthetically, this level is just as curious as the one before it, except the starting area is something of a city area with bright red brick walls. One of the comments suggested that the map evoked something similar to Kama Sutra. I think that Memfis is more keen on forcing players out of safe spaces than KSteam's "tactical" combat, but I can see some vague similarities in the way in which they both abstractly render cityscapes.

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