You are at this facility. Something goes wrong.
Terribly wrong, and half of Hell starts merging with it.
And off course you are in the middle of it. It
is time to start kicking some Hellspawn ass! Yeah, we have heard it
all before in seemingly endless combinations and variations. I never
get tired of it, in fact I love these cliché filled stories behind
custom levels. In fact, there are a lot of things I love about this
level in particular.
I could start out by giving praise to the size of
the level. But I won't. It is small, and that is always a good thing.
It could have been bigger. Any level could always be bigger, but let's
just say that I was satisfied with the size of the level. It actually
leads me to the gameplay, which consists mainly
of a cleverly designed path around the map. It takes you up, down and
around the map in search for all three keys. Along the way you will
encounter your regular selection of switches to press, doors to open
and lifts to activate. Had it been a bigger level, I
probably could not have stated the following: Need I conclude
that it works formidably and flows extremely well? Well it does!
Like in any good SP level, there is a wide
selection of the Doom II monsters represented. In this level, the
author made sure that also the players who enjoys provoking infights
between the monsters has something to do. You never know,
when coming around a corner, what sort of
monster combination will be waiting
for you. It can be a Revenant, a Chaingunner Soldier, a Hell
Knight, a Baron of Hell and a couple of Sergeants. And it will
probably be in a narrow hallway of sorts. It is enjoyable because you
have the necessary weapons and sufficient ammo in your possession and
always a way of retreating if necessary. It is fun, and just when you
think that one battle is over, the next switch you press or the next
move you make, will probably just spawn another horde of monsters. On
Ultra Violence you can add a good deal (for such a small level) of
Arch Viles which are ready to join the fun! Congestion Control is
endless action and absolutely enjoyable fun!
Finally, I would like to comment on the general
design aspects of the level, which is where the clear strength of this
level lies. These days people are pretty
occupied creating levels, which follows a specific theme be it e.g.
tech or hell. Now that is all off course very well, but it just seems
that people are afraid of touching more controversial themes such as
the one Congestion Control represents. I don't know exactly what to
call it, but it consists of virtually every other theme put together.
It is damn hard to administrate, and even harder to make it look good.
But, I must say, that Mr. Abhiram has done an extremely good job! He
has in some way made red-hot brick textures meet metal and marble
mixed brilliantly with tech- and brown-green-walls. Throw in a TNT sky
and the classic Plutonia grey
bricks and you will have a strange composition that just looks
unique! The architecture doesn't fall short here either, and the
entire thing is only obstructed by some minor "misalligned" textures.
I can't wait for the sequel for one of my favourite releases of 2002!
