Review by Colin Phipps

Aloha2x is a large level for Doom 2. The style is very unusual; there isn't a lot of detail in most areas, and most of the level is decorated in only a few textures.

But the real quality of the level is the atmosphere; it is dark and spooky throughout, with good lighting and decorations that really give it a hellish feel. The features like flaming barrels and hanging corpses look pretty sinister against the dark background. As the author says in the text file:

To fully appreciate this wad, this map should be played FULL SCREEN with NO MUSIC, IN THE DARK, or with the CURTAINS DRAWN

The easiest way to spoil a dark, sinister level like this is to make it too dark. But I found no trouble fighting the monsters; there is always enough light around (though sometimes you have to draw monsters into the light first...). The main part of the level has a good mixture of monsters of all types, and plenty of good tricks and traps - watch out behind ;). Don't worry though, the level is fair with health and ammo, and the difficulty was well judged I thought.

There are problems though; I was playing with LxDoom, and experienced a serious bug in one area. Clearly some platform didn't trigger right, and I was left with lots of HOM and unable to reach one of the keycards. A quick cheat solved that, but I was lost for a while because of that. Apart from that problem the level progression was good, with areas well connected and marked. There are some good secrets to find too.

The final area goes from the dark underground theme of most of the level to a marble hall. There is a cyberdemon and 2 spiderdemons guarding the exit, but you needn't fight them all (indeed I didn't have the ammo). There are just a few switches to hit, but I'd save first ;).

If you've got an evening free, then this is a great sinister level to play. I certainly jumped out of my seat a couple of times when traps opened, it is that spooky. You've been warned... this level is great :).