Review by Colin Phipps

"Euthanasia - Silent Deaths" is a large level for Doom 2. It's definitely in the Doom 2 style, with some parts reminding me of Circle of Death (Doom 2 MAP11), others of The Inmost Dens (Doom 2 MAP14). There is a "very dumb story" in the text file (except, as usual, King REoL frustratingly insists on a .BAT file), which can be ignored.

Unfortunately, as with so many of King REoL's levels, he insists on including his own graphics. A crap title screen I can forget, but the yellow sky looks like a 5 minute paintbrush image — a better sky graphic would have made the outdoor bit more atmospheric. The status bar graphic is also replaced, with what he calls a "symbolic" status bar: it has symbols behind the numbers to indicate what they are, instead of words below them.

The design is quite good though, with acid rivers and lakes, bridges, and areas looking down on other areas. Some of the indoor areas are quite good and gloomy too. There are quite a few secrets to look for too.

Cyberdemons dominate a lot of the gameplay. The main outdoor areas all have them, firing from fixed positions, forcing you to dash between safe areas. You don't have to kill any of them, but it is helpful to use them to kill off the many other enemies like mancubi and revenants that guard the outdoor areas.

There are plenty of traps and other fights too, so the level was generally interesting to play. The level progression is long and complicated, with keys and switches, and the cyberdemons and other obstacles making moving between areas tricky. It took me a while, but I got through in the end.

Overall, I enjoyed playing through this level. If you like long levels, searching for switches all while dodging cyb rockets, this is it.