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?

1 Monster (1MONSTER.WAD)

We are more awash in limitation-based projects than ever, with 10 Sectors capturing the imagination of the community. When 1 Monster was conceived, Dr. Zin had 2 Sectors and Congestion 1024 in mind, though we've since seen 100 Lines and a whole host of resource-economy projects. What you don't see a lot of, though, are restrictions on enemy variety. Enter 1 Monster, a megaWAD where only one monster type is placed on each map. Every member of Doom II's bestiary is represented here, from the lowly zombiman to John Romero himself with his luscious locks of love. The project kicked off at the tail end of 2005 and then changed leads several times before seeing a final release in 2007. In its more or less final form, 1 Monster is a 25 map replacement for Doom II, to be played in Boom-compatible ports.

Absolutely Killed (KILLEDC2.WAD)

Previously, I had not had the pleasure of experiencing scwiba/Ryathaen's work. I know that he made a handful of maps for 1 Monster, but that's one of the many megaWADs I have yet to play. In 2016, he published Absolutely Killed, an episode one replacement for the original Doom to be played in limit-removing ports. The title sounds something like a monster-heavy experience, evoking shades of those slow-rolling OG Doom slugfests. AK is decidedly oldschool, however, in its design sensibilities. I don't mean that its design is 1994 randomness; quite the contrary. scwiba's layouts are, for the most part, tight and quite efficient. The difference is in the way it plies gimmicks instead of and in addition to ordinary combat.