Karthik Abhiram officially kicked off his authorial career when he was 19 years old with Ick. His brother, Varun, kicked off his own career the same year with The Anomaly: Part II, when he was around 13 years of age. The siblings had some sort of dialogue with each other when it came to mapping for Doom, but they didn't really collaborate in level design until 2004's Reanimated. This PWAD, whose name and level titles are inspired by the Linkin Park remix album, Reanimation, is a two-level minisode for limit-removing ports. Apparently the genesis of their inspiration came when they downloaded some Linkin Park MIDIs off the internet. If that doesn't sound like a time-capsule of the early 2000s then I don't know what else would.
REANMTD doesn't have a plot. Karthik and Varun were just planning on making a couple of speedmaps, publishing them in time for Varun's 16th birthday, but they were having fun embellishing their works. What we ended up with was two fast and furious techbase levels, occasionally dipping into the toxic depths of each base (Varun's a little more than Karthik's but not as impactfully). If we flex our adaptive imagination then maybe we can suggest that a derelict UAC waste processing plant mysteriously came back online. Reanimated, so to speak. You are dispatched to assess this "Forgotten" facility and, "In the End", take it back offline if necessary to keep Hell from inching one step closer to the domination of our universe.
Karthik comes first in this joint. "4GOT<10" (MAP01) is very much in the style of his techbases as established in 2002's Congestion Control. It has clashing color combinations, lots of small, rectilinear rooms, and hard-hitting monsters. It's also clear that KAK's reliance on orthogonal layouts has softened a bit. Areas like the outdoor atrium and southwest annex make for great setpiece locations to better anchor your mental mapping process. I really enjoyed the moment where you grab the BFG and are immediately confronted with a sawtooth drop into nukage and an almost certain teleporter ambush, the degree of which is unknown given the weapon that you were given immediately prior.
Varun's irregular room shapes and broader areas make "EN/DA:ND" (MAP02) more of a visual standout in my eyes. I also like that, as opposed to his brother's square light fixtures, he tends towards lightcasting from wall sconces. The height variation of this map has its own metanarrative, though unlike Karthik's ledges in the atrium, it has almost no impact on "EN/DA:ND"'s gameplay. It's more about how the major portions of the level are all connected by staircases so you have a feeling of ascending and descending driving your progression through the map. Like Karthik, this level's later stages are dominated with unabashed BFG action, though it feels a bit more warranted with the density of the opposition.
Like, this is within my idea of Doom II comfort food. Each level is sort of relaxed in their combat shotgun action while still a bit challenging. They also deliver on BFG carnage and while it definitely still feels like the strong arm in Doomguy's arsenal it also doesn't feel like it enables effortless spamming. I'm sure that speedrunners would have more time-efficient ideas on how to utilize it. If moderately challenging, good-looking techbase levels appeal to you, then I'd give Reanimated a shot.
REANIMATED
by Karthik and Varun Abhiram Krishna
| 4GOT<10 | MAP01 |
|---|---|
| by Karthik Abhiram Krishna | |
| "Frgt/10". It feels distinctly like one of Karthik's calico techbases but his style has loosened up considerably from the overwhelming orthogonality of his last released solo level, Congestion Control 2. I am mainly looking at the rounded and arcing edges of this level, particularly the main outdoor area. Like, the tiny rooms and method of wall detailing is still KAK as hell, but I like these architectural developments. The base gradually opens up as you play through, room by room, usually unleashing more enemies into the playing area. It's a blastathon, pressing the combat shotgun firmly into your hands early on. Maybe to two-thirds of your way through the level you get the BFG, too, a memorable moment where you have to dash toward an open pit, falling into a sewer, and do a minor bit of BFG zerging. Between that and a metric ton of cell ammo, you won't have much of a problem besting the later waves of monsters. I was actually hoping to see a Cyberdemon to dump on. No such luck, I'm afraid. Fun stuff: this level uses abstract cityscapes as part of its window-dressing. I also really enjoyed two of the secrets, the plasma gun switch because it's on one of those basketball-style back panels up in the air, abusing Doom's height-agnostic switch presses, and the soul sphere because any lengthy secret annex is a huge get in my book. Not so fun: The Berserk secret triggered a demon ambush and while that is typically par for the course, for whatever reason I had a horrible time actually connecting with punches. I think that this is typically a symptom of how linedef detailing can affect gameplay... |   |
| MAP02 | EN:DA/ND |
|---|---|
| by Varun Abhiram Krishna | |
  | "Enth E Nd". I don't have as strong an idea of VAK's style to compare it to his previous level except, well, he tended toward rectilinear rooms (with rounded edges), just like his brother. And, uh, he didn't have Karthik's predilection toward odd texture / color combinations. "EN:DA/ND" is a handsome, dark techbase with green nukage with some fun DoomCute greebling details (not to be outdone by the personal computer console tucked away in "4GOT<10"). Check out the conduits and circuit boxes in the northwest hallway! This map has a fun sort of looping track layout. When I started looking at it to figure out how to describe it, I realized that it's basically a swastika except the arms are bent at 45 degree angles instead of 90 degree. You start in the southeast area, cut across the central yard, and up through the northwest. The west and east arms make full loops back to the atrium, the northeast one by feeding back into the starting area. So, in a roundabout way, it's sort of a lemniscate, too! Like MAP01, this is a blastathon that starts out with a lot of comfortable combat shotgun action, even if grabbing it involves a daring dash in and out of the arms of a pair of Hell knights. The plasma gun is a relatively early pickup and the BFG comes with so much cell ammo that you can really cut loose when you're battling the northeast wing's army of pain elementals, revenants, and other unsavory creatures. I was also happy to finally be able to BFG blast a Cyberdemon, even if the circular arena is a little cramped. |
IN THIS SAD WORLD OF OURS,
SORROW COMES TO ALL;
AND, TO THE YOUNG, IT COMES
WITH BITTEREST AGONY,
BECAUSE IT TAKES THEM UNAWARES.
--ABHIRAM LINKIN
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