The Final Geometry (GEOMETRY.WAD)

THE FINAL GEOMETRY
by Rick Lipsey

Rick Lipsey wasn't exactly the most prolific Doom author, but his second release, Polygon Base, was featured in Doomworld's Top 100 WADs. The Final Geometry, published in 1995, is its lesser-known prequel, clearly pointing the way for the latter. It's a single level for Doom II, occupying the MAP01 slot, and it's big. Maybe not exactly as large as its progenitor, but it occupies the same general area, with Lipsey cramming as much as he can into the map's open spaces. As for the story, it's another UAC base gone south, located near a city. Your superiors send in two different teams after a cascade of unusual incident reports. You're an unfortunate member of the third, tasked to clean the base out.

Polygon Base (POLYGON.WAD)

POLYGON BASE
by Rick Lipsey

Polygon Base is an incredibly vast and incredibly nonlinear techbase map by Rick Lipsey from 1996, the sequel to The Final Geometry, published back in 1995. It's for Doom II, but if you play on Hurt Me Plenty, he's seeded the monsters as if it were an OG Doom map. There are a few cosmetic changes, namely the new title graphic and a sound replacement for the plasma rifle that's about as obnoxious. You have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of baddies to kill. No teleportation traps, just monster closets and lighter fare. None of the toughs are really thrown at you in hordes, so the difficulty is fairly low-key, which is nice considering how big it is. There's a lot to see, with several outdoor areas (all accessible) and several rooms tracing the path of a nukage river.