We have all have our
favourite DM levels and they're
most likely not the same. However, a couple of levels is everybody's
favourites. And that's a couple of the original levels seen in Doom and
Doom2. Map01, Map07 and E1M1 to be exact. So what if someone chose to make
one level out of the three? Would it be blasphemy? Or a stroke of genius?
For the first time ever, I knew exactly what to
review! A weird feeling actually. The only thing I wondered was how the
author had merged them. TcT has chosen to merge them with some of their
outdoor areas. He did an OK job, only in some places like when standing in
E1M1's outdoor area near the nukage pit, the lower sky in that area
"removes" some of Map01's green building. And from a designer's
point of view that would be bad. Other than that, I can't really judge the
levels by their design! It would be weird and would indirectly give credit
to TcT. I'm not sure id would like that.... So I'll just be moving on.
However, I can judge it by its idea. And that's not
a bad one, at least not fatal! All three levels have great DM gameplay.
Map01 is by a large amount of players rated as the best DM Doom2 level ever
made. It has a flow like no other. It simply plays well when you're 2-4
players. The same goes for Map07 only it's much faster and intense since you
can always hear the other players in the level because of its openness. E1M1
is much like Map01. So what's the result of the merging. Well first of all
you get a huge level not very suitable for anything less than 6 players if
you like action. Combined with the new "exits" that comes from
merging the levels, the excellent gameplay slowly fades away from -for
instance- Map01: There's suddenly new opportunities in it. Map07 gets less
intense and acts merely as power-up shopping area. E1M1 is only fun if you accidentally
run into another player; not many items to get in that one. So the level
gets unbalanced with uneven difficulty. Not fair for three such brilliant DM
levels.
It's a noble undertaking merging these three levels
but when combined a lot of other custom made DM levels out there are a
better download. Death32 becomes uninteresting and an anonymous DM level
with a superb core.
