The Living End (#LIVEND.WAD)

THE LIVING END

by "Sphagne"

No--it's not THAT "Living End". This is a level by Sphagne that happens to go by the same name. Sphagne's main claim to fame is having submitted three of his previously-released levels to the first Community Chest: Avenger, Blood Runners, and Afterlife. Pretty much all of his single player maps were crafted somewhere between 1995 and 1999 and then uploaded in bulk in August of 2002. The Living End is purportedly the seventh of these, with four of the author's mentioned 19 levels never seeing publication. Like the rest of Sphagne's released solo works, it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II.

Sphagne's levels will draw comparisons to the works of Gene Bird and Alex Parsons as their submissions to CCHEST were part of a continuous series of levels, specifically Bird's Blind Alley and Parsons's World's End. Sphagne's levels had no overarching intended plot, however, and every flash fiction setup of these maps evokes a plot setup like pulp fantasy or science fiction. In this case, the player character has suffered an untimely and accidental death and is in some sort of confluence of the Greek underworld and Doom's Hell. You hear rumor of a way back into the world of the living, a portal at the end of the River Styx, and borrow a boat from one of your ancestors, Artimus, so that you can make the journey.

As it turns out, the territory at the end of the River Styx is inhospitable and heavily guarded if sparsely populated. This is a large level with some thematic parallels to its namesake. A decent portion of the map takes place on the periphery of the level on winding paths or in areas that are cut out of the edges of the map. A lot of the level's floorspace consists of a damage floor that is a blood ocean in a sprawling cistern. After dodging the Cyberdemon in Hell Harbour, he's back as a major setpiece at the north end of The Living End. This guy is active from the beginning, in contrast to MAP29's finale, though Sphagne mitigates the amount of time that he can sling rockets at you through a bizarre if simple piece of sector machinery. Cybie is located on an elevator that is constantly cycling up and popping back down whenever his widdle head hits the ceiling, with its lower half obscured by a wall. This makes the time you spend in the exit's FOV less dangerous, though it does make him cumbersome to finally kill.

Zalewa described the layout as "sandboxy" and this is basically true. There is nothing stopping you from jumping into the blood cistern and running straight to the northwest micro-dungeon, for instance, for all the good that doing so may do you without having the blue key in hand. The paths to the east and to the north from the west are both initially blockaded, however, which is a significant portion of the level that's gated off from the get-go. The eastern micro-dungeon that contains the plasma gun is technically optional and isn't even visible at first as the road to it only opens up in a curious instance of deadend backtracking. You can also walk all the way up to the Cyberdemon shrine at the level's north end... but you won't be able to raise the staircase to the platform from which you can jump down on it without having the red key in hand.

It's a tricky level to fight through as it takes Sphagne's often-challenging progression and spreads the elements out over a much broader area. You will need to meet several series of objectives in order to push through the combat that The Living End has to offer. Obtaining the stronger weapons feels like a series of major quests that go hand in hand with securing all three keys. The yellow key isn't technically secret this time around, but it may feel like it is if the incongruous skull wall near the red key door doesn't immediately prompt your attention. What tripped me up was the caged mancubus warehouse, which you need the yellow key in order to access. The teleporter near the chaingun, which I didn't take for the longest time, warps you into an isolated portion of the storage area that has the switch that opens it up to the general populace. This is an important milestone as exploring it 1) nets you the combat shotgun, 2) grants you the blue skull key, and 3) will defang it as an enemy entrenchment.

You'll want it before visiting the eastern holdout. Moving up and into the northeast section of the level, at least in my case, triggered a cloud of cacodemon invaders. There's some treacherous monster placement inside the plasma gun fortress, including but not limited to a ledge, staffed with an arch-vile and two revenants, that overlooks the pickup. The northwestern area, only accessible via jumping into the blood, is a fun mini-dungeon that has a goofy 64 grid spectre maze. The southwestern leg has one of the more grueling encounter sequences early on as it sort of peaks with a caged revenant in a small room and then moves into hitscanner alley with shotgun guys on the outer rim and commandos and more sergeants sniping at you from the small, rectangular warehouse.

I was hoping for some more abstract visuals given some of the previous Sphagne maps but it's pretty well in tune with that '90s feel. The opening area is a definite highlight as you start in the small boat that you took to get to the beginning of the map and I appreciate the marble structure that contains the Cyberdemon platform and the level's end. There are a few appreciably weird elements, like dual silver pistons in the starting bunker with cacodemons on top of them that are meant to be I don't even know what. There's also a hidden warp zone field accessible from a teleporter near the end and which I believe is responsible for the seemingly never-ending teleporter restock of a few choice crates in the blue key crate area. I think that focusing on the isolated mini-dungeons resulted in Sphagne toning down his usually more complex, interconnected geometry. This also contributes toward the level's sandboxy feel, as opposed to more dense puzzle cubes like Death Cycle's compact layout or Hell Harbour's jump-pad tower.

Because of all this, The Living End is an interesting divergence from the author's previous efforts. The '90s adventure-level progression points are still there, but there is a greater sense of mystery as its individual elements are more set apart from one another. I'm not entirely sure how I removed the eastern barrier by the chaingun lift and teleporter to the switch enclave in the caged storage area. My best guess without proof-playing is that it came down at the same time I removed the barrier that blocks the cavern connecting the southwest part of the map to the red key door. The only key whose ultimate use is immediately apparent when it's first seen is the yellow one as the yellow key bar is right next to it.

The self-revealing plasma gun dungeon deepens this element of confusion as it reinforces to the player that their actions, whether direct or merely the result of stumbling around, may cause unknown consequences elsewhere in the map. I was really hard on this sort of thing in a less enlightened age, specifically when I was reviewing Ian Wilson's Herian and Herian 2. I have softened considerably to this sort of level design since (and I think that it's incredibly effective if used in levels that have an atmosphere of horror) but, unless I'm out of touch, I'm sure that it's generally frowned upon in "modern" maps. At least, the ones that don't wear "I'm an adventure map! :)" nametags.

The Living End may not be a typical Sphagne level going by the four that I had played prior to this one but it's still recognizably Sphagne's in many of its individual design elements. I'm less certain now of what the next level, Blood Runners, may hold, but I'm pretty confident that I'll enjoy it.

THE END OF NIGHTS WE TRIED TO DIE