Tower of Lies (LIES.WAD)

TOWER OF LIES

by "scwiba"

scwiba got his start in the 1 Monster project, kicking off a career of gimmick-dedicated mapsets. He was awfully quiet for the following nine or so years until 2016, with the Cacoward-winning Absolutely Killed. In the year prior in 2015, however, he published this level, Tower of Lies. It's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II to be played in a limit-removing port. Not hearing anything about it beyond its author just about disowning it, I wasn't sure what to expect. On its face, this is a regular ol' climb through a demon-infested tower. It's still deeply invested in being a gimmick level, though, even if figuring it as such involves a deep reading of its level design with respect to its name. It's all in the name, isn't it?

Ruma (RUMA.WAD)

RUMA

by Esa Repo aka "Espi"

It's taken about three years to get here since I first played Espi's Barons o' Fun, but I finally made it. Ruma made Doomworld's Top 100 WADs list as one of the entries from 2002. It's a single map for Doom II, to be played in what appears to be any limit-removing port. Historians take note: Repo intimates in the .TXT that this was going to be MAP03 of his mini-episode, with the author keeping the start and exit, intending to build an otherwise entirely new level. I know that Espi had two minisodes in the works, One Hell of a Day (which became Suspended in Dusk) and Rust (which became part of Back to Basics). After a brief scan--and a second scan--I confirmed that the starting area of Ruma has the same geometry as Suspended in Dusk's MAP03 starting area. I guess that this makes Ruma something of a lost level or a Deleted Scene, to crib from Russell Pearson's cut content showcases.

Greymood (GRMOOD.WAD)

GREYMOOD

by "MysteriousHaruko"

Misty has had a healthy community career over the past seven or so years, working to co-host the Pigeon Speedmapping Sessions and contributing to a variety of community projects. She's also had a smattering of solo releases, including but not limited to the 2022 Cacoward HM Caffeine Injection. Greymood is her first public offering, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II published back in 2017 which now feels like a long, long time ago. There must have been some prior shared maps as rd alludes to an improvement over prior works (and the DoomWiki mentions Think about it), but Greymood was the first to find its way to the /idgames archives.

Super MAYhem 17 (MAYHEM17.WAD)

MAYhem is a time when Doomworlders can band together and throw their weight behind an arbitrary set of restrictions. The series had a rough start in terms of meeting its megaWAD goal, with 2012 and 2013 fielding 12 and 11 levels respectively, but it hit its stride with MAYhem 2048, with each subsequent iteration meeting the "megawad" definition (in spirit with MAYhem 2024, which produced 35 segments to stitch together). The 2017-released-in-2018 installment goes by Super MAYhem 17 because the texture theme this go-around was Super Mario Bros.-themed, with an aesthetic that appears to be sort of a mix of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. This is a 28-ish level replacement for Doom II, to be played with Boom-compatible ports, with some fringe MAPINFO perks for ZDoom / Eternity users.

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.

Computer Station (CMPSTATN.WAD)

COMPUTER STATION

by Mike Alfredson aka "Use3D"

Doom Beyond started out as a replacement for the Hell levels of Doom II, which Alfredson thought were lacking in Hellishness when compared to "The Catacombs" and "The Spirit World". He seems to have had a sympathetic soul in Chris Lutz, who executed a project similar in sentiment with 2017's Hellscape. Doom Beyond eventually ventured beyond its original scope, however, becoming a limit-removing megaWAD with more or less classic-style gameplay. Along the way he removed some of his older levels from the running and published them independently. So far I've taken a look at Hell Pit, Deep Core 1, Chaotic Grounds, and Temple of Sin. This review is for Computer Station, a MAP04 replacement for Doom II, originally crafted in 1997, that was stationed earlier in the megaWAD along with Deep Core 1. 

Still Kickin' (KICKIN01.WAD)

STILL KICKIN'

by Kurt Kesler

When I played KZDOOM7 back in 2016, I had two levels left before I had reviewed the entirety of his output: "Phobos - The Underground Sewer Facility" from Ni'mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE (MAP05), published in 2002, and Still Kickin', a solo level released in 2005. I played NIMROD back in 2019, but I wasn't in much of a hurry to play Kesler's final offering. Then, in 2023, it happened: KGZDoom1, Kesler's first published Doom content in 18 years. Since then and as of this writing, there are three new KMETL levels. Will wonders never cease? It feels about time to ride the K train again and close the gap between 2002 and 2023. Still Kickin', at one point Kesler's ultimate work, is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II to be played in any limit-removing port.

How Eye Killed Time (KILLTIME.WAD)

HOW EYE KILLED TIME

by "Memfis"

Memfis uploaded some maps to /idgames as he made them, but he waited to upload even more of them until 06/21/14, the day of the great uploading. How Eye Killed Time, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II, was apparently crafted early October of 2013 but it doesn't appear to have been stealth-released on the Doomworld Forum like most of the June 2014 uploads that I've played thus far. Maybe he posted it to a different forum, or maybe he just sat on it until he decided to clear out his archives. In any event, the PWAD claims to require Boom compatibility, but based on what I've seen over past Memfis reviews, I believe that the reality is that the only environment this map was tested in is PrBoom-plus using -complevel 9. It wouldn't surprise me if it worked in more or less any limit-removing port.