Corrupted Cistern (CIS-LUTZ.WAD)

CORRUPTED CISTERN

by Christopher Lutz

2016-2017 was a banger of a year for Chris Lutz. No End In Sight saw its final release, with three awesome levels from the author in the four-episode package, including the stunningly gorgeous "The Blood Beneath" (E4M5). We got a similarly fabulous Hellscape, reimagining the original Doom II's Hell episode with forbidden, Stygian vistas and built around his previous The Dying End. Later, we saw the super-fun and super-huge Dark Tide, a late entry in TNT's sort-of-series, The Return. Now, in 2022, we get a new evolution of Chris, an ultra-detailed level in GZDOOM: Corrupted Cistern, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. Be still, my beating heart!

Doom the Way id Did (DTWID.WAD)

In the latter half of 2010, Jason "Hellbent" Root more or less kicked off Doom the Way id Did, a project that aimed to recreate the feel of Doom's original three episodes by mimicking the design traits of the authors. Mappers flocked to the project, with a total of 95 submitted levels. That's enough for three brand new OG Doom megaWADs! (Still waiting on the official releases of the "rejects".) DTWID represents the cream of the crop, as selected by the project leads. The original aim was that each map could be seamlessly inserted into the running with no one the wiser. Of course, to better flesh out the episodes, beginning and boss maps were created. I feel comfortable in saying that even these well-trodden concepts had some new life breathed into them.