The Abyss (ABYSS.WAD)

The Abyss was rescued from... the abyss of time. It's crazy to think that the primary reason we have The Abyss right now is because one of its creators, J.M.P. van Waveren ("Mr. Elusive"), toted a copy of it with him when he started working at id Software. Otherwise, who knows? This megaWAD was released over several iterations, eventually crystallizing in 1995 as a 24-map replacement for Doom II, not counting the placeholder "THE END" levels. Miklos de Rijk ("H2SO4") and van Waveren originally published The Abyss on a more localized BBS in The Netherlands, but there's no digital record of anyone acknowledging it. de Rijk and van Waveren went on to significantly more acclaim with their Omicron Bot for Quake, notable for its apparent ability to function on "the jankiest, boxiest of community maps". This apparently got Mr. Elusive a foot in the door at id, where he worked on Quake III and subsequent projects before following Carmack to work on the Oculus.

The .TXT for The Abyss claims that there is no tale to tell, but the DoomWiki article paints its own story through the implied action of the levels. This interpretation is assisted by several concrete details, like the locked weapons cabinets in "Pink Horde" (MAP01) reappearing in "Satan's Cross" (MAP15), a bona fide supercomputer in "The Cray" (MAP20), and a sudden shift in the aesthetic of the maps afterward. This is the adventure of Miklos, an archaeologist whose thievery-- err, investigation was suddenly interrupted by an attack by menacing monsters. Since he cannot get out, he digs deeper, through the subterranean passages of a vast mountain. Eventually he discovers that most of the locations that he has visited are... holographic projections? From a supercomputer? Anyway, they're meant to serve as a front for a cult that is attempting to summon even more demons into the world. Miklos eventually puts an end to the Satanic sorcery... but at what cost?!

As early as MAP01, you get a sense for the essential character of van Waveren's and de Rijk's level design philosophy. These levels are at times highly interconnected through secret passages and routes that could theoretically allow you to skip large sections of each map. Take the pain elemental pit in "Light and Darkness" (MAP17), or the teleporter at the back of the auditorium in "The Library" (MAP13), for instance. I think that these routes are meant to add food for thought for demo recorders. Sometimes, like with the early "Avernus" (MAP03), the amount of secret access panels gets a wee bit excessive, but it's all in good fun. The abundance of hideaways makes the short levels fun to explore and, given the way they let you move about each map, they also feel impactful. As a reviewer, however, I sometimes felt opposed to taking them since they can involve bypassing broad swathes of level design.

This works hand in hand with the de Rijk / van Waveren approach to encounter design to create a problematic pistol start experience. If you try to play these maps from scratch on UV without any prior knowledge, then you ought to know what you are getting yourself into. The tone of some of these levels changes drastically when doing so, starting as early as "The Nunnery" (MAP04), where you must scrimp and scrape through a significant portion of the map before laying hands on a shotgun. I don't believe that this is a case of "the authors didn't balance them for pistol start". I firmly believe that van Waveren and de Rijk meant for these maps to be significantly more challenging when not using carryovers. Some of the later levels are shotgun / chaingun only, and whatever you pull from the cold, dead fingers of zombies at that.

I think the action is at its most unapproachable in "Arabesque" (MAP14). Several of these levels start you out in a morass of chaingunners--"Light and Darkness" (MAP17) is another--but MAP14 has two potential directions to go, both of which look like they might initially require survivalist tactics. Of course, one of these is THE WRONG one while the other when toughed out yields a megasphere and a plasma gun. I strongly advise anyone wanting to try these maps on UV to "learn" them on HMP first before sentencing yourself to a grueling experience. Or, well, blast through the entire set continuously! van Waveren and de Rijk may not have dropped rocket launchers, combat shotguns, and plasma guns in every level, but there is plenty of ammo lying around for carryover kits.

Beyond the survivalist quirks in UV, the set starts out leaning hard on imp crossfire encounters to provide moderately challenging and engaging firefights. Between these and the pop MIDIs, this has the very feel of vintage '95. Once you pass "Imp Madness" (MAP05), though, the authors start throwing punchier, bulky encounters. Hell knights and Barons start to phase out imps as turret monsters and you start seeing revenants, arch-viles, and pain elementals in pop-scare roles. I wouldn't put any of it near the level of The Plutonia Experiment, but the way that I experienced this megaWAD more or less enforced a much slower pace. The thing about PLUTONIA is that you get to hit back as hard as you get it. The Abyss has some small shocks, but I think that the original Doom II throws harder punches at greater frequency.

If I had to pick one thing to describe The Abyss's architectural style, it would be... spiral staircases. It's a prominent architectural motif, especially within van Waveren's levels. Otherwise, the set is consistently 1995, which I mean with all the love in the world. "The Catacombs" (MAP02) is one of the coolest levels in the megaWAD in its adventure-like style and attempts at world-building and if the rest of the set had followed de Rijk's lead then I would be just as happy. It's not like van Waveren didn't try with "The Nunnery", which is sort of an abbey and has a cool sequence where a fire breaks down into lost souls that then attack. Attempts at evoking real-world spaces persist in levels like "The Theatre" (MAP08), "The Library", "The Cray", and "Basilica" (MAP22).

These levels also draw hard on the abstract elements of Doom and Doom II, and I'm not talking about the E1M1-derived "Hangar" (MAP10) or MAP01-start of "The Temple" (MAP31). "Imp Madness" (MAP05) gives me strong John Romero a la Doom II vibes with the features of some of its individual rooms, like the caged walkway, and "Satan's Cross" feels firmly in the grand tradition of "Circle of Death" and "The Living End". "The Pits of Doom" (MAP19) in some ways aesthetically evokes Knee Deep in the Dead. Other maps are just purposefully weird. Take "Bloodstream" (MAP09), with its rippling piston pole walkway, imp teleporter matrix, and canted cube chamber (I take it that this is the Bauhaus architecture that DoomWiki refers to). "Short 'n Sweet" (MAP18) is also unrestrictedly goofy in its opening switch-dig labyrinth, as is the commando pole room in "Stone Henge" (MAP11).

When I say that it's consistently 1995, it's because it's sort of a smorgasbord of everything that I would expect from interesting '95 level design. Sometimes it just boils down to tropes that were The Latest Style in their time, like the up / down elevator from "Not Level" that serves as the map's hub. At others, it's something like "The Square" (MAP12), which is primarily constructed of symmetric room and corridor systems that have interesting architectural features. This is something which typified much of Malcolm Sailor's pre-CHORD_NG work and which is also associated with Tim "Studio Snake" Willits by way of "Fear" from The Ultimate Doom as well as his ATTACK.

The Abyss touts some new resources but most of what immediately hits you consists of stained glass windows cribbed from Heretic and big, bloody Xs on marble walls that are meant to highlight secret passages. Like, I dunno, someone had already been in these ruins and marked up some of the features that they discovered that they felt might be good to know. Some more Heretic textures crop up later on but the one novel texture that stands out in my mind is some sort of thin spiral column texture, first appearing in "Arabesque" and showing up in a few later levels. I'd also like to give a shout out to van Waveren's usage of the metal-bordered skin panels in "Short 'n Sweet" as the few slightly recessed panels add a lot of depth to the texture.

I didn't think of ABYSS's progression style as especially cryptic, but it tripped me up in "The Catacombs" so it bears mentioning. There are three styles of "hidden" passageways that the authors use in their design language, the first and most memorable being the holy red Xs seen in the marble ruins. The second, misaligned textures. It's amazing how invisible good texture alignment can seem, but van Waveren and de Rijk were HUGE sticklers for aligning patterned textures. This gives every visual in the megaWAD a good, clean feeling, but it also serves as a classic sign that it is a secret passage of some sort. The third and final clue--and I don't remember if it comes up anywhere other than MAP02--is a door that appears on the automap but is otherwise unmarked. If you're the sort of person who declines to look at the automap because it spoils your immersion, then you are going to hit quite the stumbling block in exploring "The Catacombs". Not that there's a lot of surface area to check if you have to resort to wallhumping.

It's crazy to think of how many works of art have been lost due to the services that hosted them going down. We have archivists like The Mad Butcher who try to grab everything they can whenever they see it, but there are still enormous memory holes in community history with situations like the death of the CompuServe Action Games Forum. This isn't even touching on how many modern works are still being shared through decentralized and ultimately temporary storage. I don't think that I'll ever get around to playing the entirety of the broader Doom diaspora's output if I insist on reviewing every piece of it the way that I am, but I believe that almost all of it is worth preserving, if some only for its value as a sort of anthropological record. The Abyss was very close to being obliterated from public memory. It looks like its re-entry is the only thing that prompted the broader userbase to realize that it had been quietly available on Telefragged... at least until they, too, shut down. If van Waveren hadn't toted a copy to id Software's servers, then no one would have even known that it existed, let alone to check for it. And, a few years after it was uploaded to /idgames, van Waveren passed away from cancer. It's not difficult to imagine a series of unfortunate events that would have resulted in The Abyss languishing in obscurity.

This would have been a shame. ABYSS is a fun romp that is emblematic of '95 in a great way, apart from maybe the survivalist mode UV pistol being a barrier to overall accessibility. Storytelling, abstract visuals, and moderate action makes this a breeze in those situations where you aren't scraping to survive. Again, I would suggest playing this with carryovers for the first time or at the very least seeing a selection through on HMP. Thanks, guys. J.M.P., I'll see you where the sky may be.

THE ABYSS

by Miklos de Rijk aka "H2SO4"

and J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"

Pink Horde	MAP01
by Miklos de Rijk aka "H2SO4"
A labyrinth of curved corridors full of demon and spectre traps that features a ton of Tyson-style gameplay. It's a fun way to ease into action if you're into Berserk punching demons. I think that there's one potentially hairy section in the exit room, considering you get mobbed on all sides, but players used to fisting ought to have a relaxed time. Non-demon enemies include a few scattered imps, lost souls, and even a cacodemon as a miniboss. I like the look of the main room being at sort of a 45 degree angle and the weapon imprisonment room is a DoomCute way to reinforce the concept of the Tyson level.

MAP02	The Catacombs
by Miklos de Rijk aka "H2SO4"
	You know, it's a relief to be playing a classic PWAD from the mid-90s. This is a short, cool romp through subterranean passages that includes a super-long twisty spiral staircase and a neat honeycomb-shaped central structure. I also like the crumbling brick walls. I sort of found this out in "Pink Horde" but it's reinforced here that you need to carefully examine the automap in some cases to move forward. The passage to the titular catacombs does not appear to be otherwise marked. The standout encounter here is the penultimate brawl with the imp slats in the floor.

Avernus	MAP03
by Miklos de Rijk aka "H2SO4"
OH A DAS BOOT REMIX MIDI! THE FEELING IS BACK, BABY! This is a big sort of green brick cathedral-style level, Avernus referring to the real-world location's history as a fabled entrance to the underworld. It feels a lot denser than it actually is because the map is LOADED with little interconnecting secret passages. A large portion of it is devoted to a bizarre network of staircases around stained glass alcoves. This helps to hammer in the atmosphere as little to no actual combat will be occurring there. Some commandos might provide for a lethal surprise but, once again, my standout encounter must go to imps. Specifically, it's the blue skull key courtyard. I like the sneaky monster closet that is designed to allow imps to use the elevator to get down into the pit with you.

MAP04	The Nunnery
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
	Green marble and wood as well as a dark, dank brick prison. This level has a really cool opening structure with the seven-pointed broken star surrounding the teleporter. It also has some fun bits like the fire going out and releasing lost souls guarding the red key as well as the light switch that lets you see what is going on in all of those prison cells. Pistol start players will have quite a different experience with this level as you must run past quite a few beasties before you can grab a shotgun from a sergeant--dead or alive--in the southwestern courtyard. This may or may not involve squeezing past a cacodemon.

Imp Madness	MAP05
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
Because this level is themed around imp encounters (which is actually one of the main features of the PWAD thus far). One of these is a relatively humdrum teleporter ambush into a cramped space, but the northwest courtyard and southwest caged catwalk make for memorable crossfires. There's a fun teleporter sequence where you get to defang about 40% of one of the imp crossfire before having to step foot onto the path. I like the cute secret where you can take the teleporter back into the exit of MAP04 and, with all three keys in hand, get a few bonuses.

MAP06	Not Level
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
	This is a typical "elevator" level where a central platform links up multiple tiers of the map. Most of the rooms coming off of the elevator hub are actually pretty tiny. The exceptions are the E1M2-ish outdoor yard with the soul sphere, mostly due to its sheer size, and the segment that starts with the hallway that overlooks the aforementioned yard. This level gives you the plasma gun fairly early on in a sort of cool-looking shrine and then has you use it in a fairly wide-open outdoor brawl with all of the fliers. The pain elemental and chaingunner ambush was a pretty sharp shock.

The Cube	MAP07
by Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
A "Dead Simple"-ish clone that mixes in Hell nobles with the traditional mancubi and arachnotrons. The Hell knights are pretty ineffectual but the Barons, if provoked, will wipe the arachnotrons out pretty handily. I think that the first wave is far more dangerous.

MAP08	The Theatre
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
	This is like a Doom II City level. In this case, it's a theater, but more like a playhouse. The Wiki describes the setup as a cafetorium, which makes way more sense. A revenant and Hell knight had been putting on a show for quite a crowd of zombies. It's almost a shame to spoil their good fun... This one has quite a few big brawls, one of which is a second wave in the theater that contains cacodemons, pain elementals and lost souls, with a few imps in the back running interference. This is one of the major reasons that you will want to have the semi-secret plasma gun in hand. The architecture is decidedly less theatre-ish as you leave the play hall, as if this is some sort of pagan temple. I don't know how you would square this against the obvious kitchen, though. A fun blastathon, even the awkward upper-tier fights at the far east and west.

Bloodstream	MAP09
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
One of the more purposefully bizarre levels in the set. "Bloodstream" is big on damage floors, colonnades that block player movement (and hint at blocked-off exits), and small but moderately challenging monster placement. The blue skull key trap is probably the deadliest, if only because of the nature of your exposure against the chaingunners. The bamboo pole room to the northeast is less dangerous and more just awkward to clear out. I've always had a soft spot for weird monster teleporting gimmicks and the dark room just south of the pole room pulls one off quite well. Also, I love the spun cube structure right before the exit! That's an awesome look.

MAP10	Hangar
by Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4" and John Romero
	No, you're not hallucinating. This is "Hangar" a la "Warrens". Everything leading up to the exit switch is pretty much the same, though people familiar with the Ultimate Doom version of E1M1 may be confused to find the pillar switch in the green armor room missing. You may also do a double take when you look over and see another guard tower to your left. All is revealed, however, with a cramped cacodemon shootout. After this, there is a big save-or-die situation--feels like the first one in the PWAD--where you will be put out if you don't rush the BFG and soul sphere the moment you see them. I love that there's a second hangar to explore that isn't required and doesn't offer much beyond additional, beefy monsters.

Stone Henge	MAP11
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
Recalling the shotgun rush of "The Nunnery", players working from pistol start have an intense challenge ahead of them. The goal is to push past and through a lot of monsters, eventually securing the plasma gun, after which you can go back and clear whatever you want to for 100% kills. Considering that you will probably have an arch-vile / revenant / pain elemental cadre at the top of the stairs, you may want to just exit. Carryover players will get the opportunity to really soak in the visual of a bunch of imps staffing a computer room. Oh, and the titular megalith, which starts out with an innocent enough-looking complement of imps.

MAP12	The Square
by Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
	Faking you out for a second with a marble temple-style level before presenting you with a multi-tiered outdoor stair structure superficially resembling the central area of "Phobos Lab" (E1M5). Except, mancubi. This level's action is tedious, fielding a lot of entrenched opposition. It will be much more fun starting out with... well, the super shotgun in the secret right behind you, not that I advocate using it to clear out the lost souls in the twisty passageway beyond. There are some potential speedrunning tricks, which the organization of the secret passages strongly suggests is deliberate. The sole demo I found from Noobest shows that the potential arch-vile jump skip is a red herring.

The Library	MAP13
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
Evoking "The Theatre" with a level that is nominally based on facsimiles of real-world locations and then spirals into the abstract. It's pretty cool! But it'll be a lot cooler if you're toting a plasma gun! This one's got a library (of course) with a bookcase secret as well as an auditorium full of zombies. Check out the combat shotgun at the lectern! The abstract architecture is fungineered to provide Doom-style platforming in a three-dimensional space. I really like the swashbuckling leap between the two spiral staircases. The trademark secret route may lead to you bypassing all of this cool stuff, though, which would be a shame.

MAP14	Arabesque
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
	This is another one of those UV scrapper levels, and it's even more painful because you have to survive a grid of chaingunner poison before you get to move on to figuring out what all this cell ammo is supposed to be feeding. Play this on HMP before you engage on UV. Both potential paths will have you think that you're supposed to be luring Hell knights out of your way. This is only true in the path that you're meant to take first, and even when you've accomplished this you have to stretch the megasphere to account for snagging the plasma gun and then nuking its attendant arch-vile ASAP. But, hey, I love the twisty green columns in the outdoor area!!!!

Satan's Cross	MAP15
by Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
Umm, this is an abstract underground level that sort of takes after Romero's "Circle of Death" / "The Living End" style but it's much simpler. It's kind of tricky to know where to go first, but if you go north and northeast to secure a Berserk pack then you can use it to best the pain elemental guardian to the weapons room, itself a callback to the Tyson tease from MAP01. Cute! The rest of the monsters are going to tax whatever resources you find, so shoot wisely.

MAP31	The Temple
by Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4" and Sandy Petersen
	Why de Rajik decided to spin this of of "Entryway", idk, maybe the "Warrens" factor? This starts out exactly like Doom II's MAP01 but then veers way off course with an infighting scenario involving a Spiderdemon, a lot of cover, and a small teleport deployment. There's a plasma gun provided, but you'll definitely want to get the arachnomomma to do as much work as possible. The temple itself looks cool, if blocky.

Spider Bowl	MAP32
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
A fun, short, hard-hitting level. The first thing that you ought to do is grab the rocket launcher from the weird butterfly-needle like structure while dodging mancubus fireballs. And then, of course, slay the fatsos. FYI, the rocket launcher can't be grabbed by bumping it in ZDoom, so if you can't snag it in the source port of your choice then you might as well... JUMP! Go ahead and jump. The rest is a long, curved staircase climb battling single chaingunners, revenants, cacodemons, and lost souls before the titular Spider Bowl. It isn't exactly exciting but it's kind of comforting, even if the lost souls seem especially sneaky.

MAP16	The Grand Tower
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
	Well, any way you slice it, this is going to be slow shotgun action with some light survivalist touches. You won't want to linger with the starting Hell knights, for instance, and it would help to coax some infighting where possible. This tower doesn't feel particularly grand but I like the lighting in the room before the computer farm. I also like the design of the tan area to the northeast, the one with the wall bunkers of commandos and arachnotrons on the field.

Light and Darkness	MAP17
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
Okay, this is a pretty fun abstract level. You just have to make it through commandos hunting for you in the dark. This isn't impossible, and it's probably going to be annoying, but the reveal when you turn the lights on is pretty good. Some of the rooms, like the one with the pain elemental pit, don't make any sense at first until you realize just how deeply these guys felt about adding in fun sequence-breaking shortcuts. Like the previous level, it's mostly shotgun action, but you can snag a plasma gun fairly early on if you play your cards right. This plays into a big way with a Cyberdemon showdown, though I could deal without the wall of Hell noble flesh that tries to pour out of the penultimate room. The barred bridges are kind of cute.

MAP18	Short 'n Sweet
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
	Okay, this made me smile. It starts out with a lot of switch-fu with you sort of "digging" out pre-made tunnels a la You Dig but with broader sections of wall. Then you enter some sort of underground structure with roots and tech guts, including a charming tech guts maze. From pistol start it's rather plodding as you'll have to dispatch something like four Barons with the shotgun or chaingun.

The Pits of Doom	MAP19
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive"
Deliberately invoking the "Knee Deep in the Dead" aesthetic, most authentically with the "Toxin Refinery"-esque tower seen near the level's opening. This is a comfortable shotgun grind with three rockets that you can use to strategically speed up the encounter of your choice. A revenant, a Baron, and a mancubus break up the Doom II trash monster feel van Waveren has going on here, a fat lot of good the mancubus does in the pit it's in. I think that it's just there to block access to the door. Looks fine, plays fine.

MAP20	The Cray
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
	Oh, okay! The "Cray" in question is a particular design of supercomputer, the centerpiece of an unusual amount of props located in the level's northwest section. You can activate it and also do something with a secret reactor if you can find it. Most of the level's actual action is based around a large, inner yard and the periphery in which you (and imps, and commandos, and revenants) can look in. The yard is a dangerous place to be, and navigating the level's outer layer is slightly tricky due to a combination of teleporters, different tiers of platforms, and how the route weaves in and out of the yard itself.

Heretic Factor	MAP21
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
This feels like a complete tonal shift... twice. Most of this level consists of plain gray concrete castle or dungeon or something with Heretic stained glass windows. Then you make it to the final leg and I literally guffawed when it suddenly turned into STARTAN. A cool STARTAN spiral staircase, to be fair, but this reminds me of that "shaggy dog techbase" joke I made years ago. Lots of shotgun and chaingun action. I think that the hall with the soul sphere pillar is about as dicey as things get; it's slow going with your limited armaments. There are some fun architectural visuals and I like that the secret areas are dingy with metal struts to make them look like structural alcoves.

MAP22	Basilica
by J.M.P. van Waveren aka "Mr. Elusive" and Miklos de Rajik aka "H2SO4"
	It pays to know the secret chain that kits you out with a combat shotgun, green armor, a backpack, and the chaingun, with plenty of interstitial cover from the central arch-vile. You don't HAVE to access it to complete the level, but it MAY be considerably more fun to do so. This is maybe the prettiest level that the authors have crafted out of the entire set, particularly the main hall and its red-carpet altar. The Heretic textures really work, here, but there's something lacking maybe in its uniform lighting, a similar aspect of the previous "Heretic Factor". Most of the hard action of this level is confined to the big hall, which is why the daring series of cell raids is kind of fun. The sarcophagus is a cute way to end the set.

The End	MAP23...
by ????
Just a reminder that the PWAD is over! The steel demon walls from Slaughter Until Death look kind of natural in these placeholder exit switch rooms. I wonder how much of an influence the Moellers may have had on van Waveren and de Rijk...?

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY AWOKE IN

THE DARKNESS OF KHAZAD-DOOM.