KMETL14 (KMETL14.WAD)

KMETL14

by Kurt Kesler

Kurt Kesler made a bunch of vanilla levels that got rolled up into KMEGA1 before moving onto limit-removing with KHILLS, Boom with KBOOM, and, of course, ZDoom with KZDOOM. In 2023, we got the first KGZDOOM, KGZDOOM1. At the end of 2024 Kurt added another wrinkle to his legacy--the first in a series of new KMETL maps, no longer for vanilla but for limit-removing ports. KMETL14 is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II and one of three such iterations on the KMETL theme thus far. As to whether or not there will be more, well, it looks like Kesler has switched gears to make a GZDoom minisode alongside Doomworld Community superstar Chris Hansen. If we can get a spiritual sequel to KGZDOOM1, then I'm sure that there'll be more KMETL.

Unlike KGZ1, this KMETL map doesn't have a story. Not that it really needs one. You start out in a tech installation with a bunch of low-threat zombie guards closing in on your position like you tripped an alarm. I'm assuming that Doomguy mission impossible'd his way into another base of Hellspawn and got caught sneaking around. You have to fight your way out of the base and scour the wilderness in order to find a keycard that lets you penetrate even deeper into the installation. It's a classic Doom II action narrative; there's even some flowing nukage, the origin of which may be the base. You do pass a big ol' cistern full of it on your way to the exit, after all.

The first thing that caught me off-guard with KMETL14 is its combat. The opening movements feel like a sort of invasion mode where you battle single monster types in increasing toughness, the first wave being plain ol' zombimen in a sequence that's more effective than I would have thought. The next major leg involves imps with some Hell knights thrown in for good measure. Kesler uses teleporters to keep the player a little off-kilter but their execution doesn't feel quite as obnoxious as the sneak attack warping in, say, Still Kickin'. The rest of the level has a sort of classic Kesler vibe, with the outdoor area featuring relatively themed monster packs like the traditional cacodemon invasion, but without cluttering the area up with beasties.

Combat, as you might expect, heavily features combat shotgun and rocket launcher use. The chaingun offers up some niche use, too, either for Doom II trash or some bigger monsters like mancubi that might get a bit too chummy. I thought that most of the monster placement was pretty accommodating, with a bit of a thrill inside the wooden outpost and its two surprise arch-viles, and even fielding a few "Oh shit!" pain elemental moments. My least favorite bit was how Kesler repopulated the upper platform to the red key door with mancubi and revenants, but this is more of a quibble with how the rest of the map had been paced. You can take your time and throw some rockets at the beasties from the ground floor; there's no rush.

The sequence I appreciated the most was the overlapping spaghetti of hallways and walkways and tiered platforms that you walk through in order to reach the exit. It's a fun area geometrically speaking to play through and features lots of good, clean rectilinear architecture and detailing. Now, I'm not exactly sure why Kesler decided to teleport one of the final wave of revenants onto one of the lower floors--I'm guessing it was so that the player would have something to think about if they decided to jump down in order to avoid some aspect of the encounter--but anyone looking for 100% kills is going to have to go back down there regardless.

I sort of glazed over this with regards to KGZDoom1 but Kesler has been using music tracks produced by Tamara Moccachina with both that release as well as this one. These MIDIs have clearly been inspired by classic Doom tunes but are remixed / reconfigured / rearranged in such a way that they feel uncomfortably familiar, mostly because when they're in the background my brain keeps expecting the origin of whatever motif is being referenced. In this case, it's "Nobody Told Me About id" and "Waiting For Romero to Play". They're really fun mash-ups and I hope that Kurt keeps using them.

I don't have the clearest picture in my head of the KMETL maps of KMEGA1 but Kesler produced a wealth of levels since KMETL13. KMETL14 is more of an extension of the sort of level design seen in his 1999-and-on levels, like the KZDoom series and Still Kickin', but with a more understated encounter design than KICKIN01 (or for that matter KGZDOOM1!). If you want to play through a classic Doom II action gauntlet with a relatively easygoing pace, then you could do a lot worse than to give KMETL14 a try.

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