The Process (TPROCESS.WAD)

THE PROCESS

by Mike Alfredson aka "Use3D"

Use3D has been making maps for a long time. So much of his creative energy has been tied up in his two one-man megaWADs, Doom Beyond and Nilla Doom, so much so that he actually jettisoned a number of his oldest maps from Doom Beyond and released them as singular outtakes. I've been covering all of these levels in my run-up to the original Community Chest and will take a gander at Doom Beyond whenever it releases because, well, Mike makes damn good classic-feeling maps. The last batch of Alfredson's outtakes was published in 2019. The Process is the most recent of these, by which I mean it was crafted in 2001 instead of 1997. It's a MAP05 replacement for Doom II, to be played in any port.

At the risk of repeating myself, Doom Beyond originally started as a re-imagining of Doom II's Hell episode with more infernal imagery. Somewhere along the way Use3D decided to fill out the rest of the megaWAD using the overtures of the Doom: Hell on Earth novel to inform the action of the levels. What he delivered, at least in his early iteration, appears to be a set that showed a lot of love for both Doom as well as Doom II. We don't have many examples of the mid-range levels but the one that we do was a bit of a "Courtyard" homage. The first episode is still very much in the flavor of a UAC starbase, but one that is distinctly influenced by Alfredson's affection for Doom.

I've previously played Doom Beyond's original MAP02, Deep Core 1, as well as its MAP04, Computer Station. Both of these are in the genre of "decently-sized techbase level that you have to explore" and The Process is much the same. It hits a bit different, though, by its megaWAD monster pacing--this appears to be the player's first encounter with the Hell knight--as well as the development of the teleporter gimmick. Use3D introduced UAC teleporter booths in Computer Station first as as a tech demo and toward the end as a way to access an otherwise inaccessible but visible area. They are integral to your progression through The Process, and while the entire level is visually interlinked, there's at least one segment that, movement-wise, is bounded by the teleporter that takes you there and the one that gets you out.

While it may not look big at first glance with 160 monsters, this level FEELS massive. This is a fiddly techbase with lots of switches and triggers, both permanent and timed. There are an army of difficult-to-find secrets that grant access to helpful supply closets as well as a very large and entirely optional annex linked together by nukage tunnels that, if conquered, will yield the combat shotgun for your slaying pleasure. I generally think of myself as pretty good at sniffing out secrets but I only got two out of the seven before reaching the exit and only figured out the candle trigger toward the end because, well, the SSG region ended up being the last part of the level that I explored. Sploops!

You won't be hurting for ammo, but the secrets are almost certainly helpful given that they contain health and a large portion of the monsters you'll be fighting are zombies. Chaingunners factor in some of the level's most dickish encounter design. There are two quick-reveal monster closets on your way to the combat shotgun, a teleporter ambush that's great in the way in which it distracts you by dangling a shiny, never-before-seen Hell knight in front of your eyes, and a commando at the top of an elevator that's in a room bedecked with explosive barrels. (This level is, uh, rife with barrels in general.) As big as it is, a lot of the level's maneuverable spaces are kind of cramped, so monsters like demons and especially cacodemons exert lowkey but effective player pressure.

When it comes to base maps, I love interesting rooms. The Process does not disappoint. Each of its larger areas is like a little treasure, crammed with interesting visuals for you to feast your eyes on. While it's kind of a pain given the damage floor involved when paired with the slow lift doors, I really enjoyed the offbeat cascading settling ponds sequence seen in the southeast portion of the map. The primary teleporter room to the northwest is a great tech chamber with an inexplicable cycling crusher. Like, what? The whole combat shotgun wing has an awesome display of classic sector machinery as you raise bridges emanating from the central pillar but have the doors gate your movement through it.

The layout style of TPROCESS, like CMPSTATN and DEEPCORE (and to some extent pretty much all of these older Use3D maps that I've played), is a sort of amalgam of John Romero's solid, bisymmetric core through which a number of side-areas are spun off, E2-style. The community has railed against symmetry, heavily at some points, but having occasional strong, symmetric regions in huge exploration maps is one of the ways in which you can better ground the player's experience. This is especially true in level starts. These areas give the player some degree of familiarity through their visual language so that users aren't completely overwhelmed by complex, abstract designs. It also allows the author to sort of re-center the player's expectations so that the subversion of more freestyle room shapes and architecture can hit a bit harder.

Aesthetically, this is still very much in keeping with the sort of starbase / KDitD hybrid established in Deep Core 1 and Computer Station. Think dingy sewer tiling mixed with green corrugated metal as well as a lot of grey, green, and tan ribbed wall tiles. Computer Station wore its OG Doom influences on its sleeve; The Process is far less overt in cribbing anything if indeed it has borrowed elements at all. It feels more uniquely Use3D's while also fitting alongside the MAP02 and MAP04 outtakes. It also continues the motif of huge bay windows on one of the level's ends, this time appearing by the exit on the south side.

I'm glad that Use3D didn't scrap this level as a whole when he decided to revamp the set. It's a gem of classic Doom II goodness and as an excerpt example of megaWAD pacing its combat ends up feeling incredibly restrained compared to most single level releases. I know that The Process isn't a case of this, but how often do people sit down to author a single release and think, "Well, I'm going to limit myself to the Doom II bestiary up to MAP05", for instance? Err, cacodemons notwithstanding. I know that they're one of Alfredson's workhorses. Anyway, if you want some classic Doom II action that takes it more or less easy on the player, then you could do way worse than to give TPROCESS a go.

CHURCH OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT