Review by Colin Phipps

"Tower of the CyberDemons v1.0" is the sort of name for a Doom level that would put off most Doom players. We all know there are too many maps with stupid cyberdemon battles. So I think it was a brave idea to aim to make a really good map based just on a big cyberdemon fight. The level is very reminiscent of E2M8 (in fact it replaces E2M8, and so the level ends only when you kill the cybers), but the arena is rather more spacious, and looks a lot more stylish than the original, with acid round the outside, and a tall red stone tower in the middle. The level is for Doom 1, and requires Boom for the bright acid effect and to avoid Doom's limits.

At skill 4 there are "12 Cybers, some Lost Souls and a lot of Imps", which is more than enough to kep you busy, although I don't remember shooting much at the lost souls or imps, the cybers killed them pretty quickly. Skill levels are implemented, so if you find 12 too much you can lower the skill. But once I got into a pattern, circling about the central area to draw the cyberdemons together, the number of cybers wasn't a problem.

What sets this level above the usually cyber-rocketing excersise is the judgement of ammo. There is definitely not enough rockets and cells alone to kill all the cybers. After firing off all the rockets and cells available from the start room and outer areas of the arena, I'd only killed 2 or 3 of the cybers (your damage tends to be spread over all the cybers, not focused). Then I fell back on the shells and bullets; finishing off the cybers with a shotgun was pretty cool :-).

There were still a few left at the end of the shells though, so I had to grab-and-run at the ammo lying in the central area to get more ammo to finish them off with. There are some plasma rifles on lowering pillars that I needed to get right at the end, tricky with a cyber wandering round. I died a few times in finishing the level, but there's plenty of health around to fix you up after the odd rocket hit.

Some people will see the name and "12 cybers" and assume this is a bad level; maybe others have better aim than me, find ammo no problem, and maybe find it boring. But for me it was judged to perfection, and the ammo shortage turned this into a great battle. It's great to see the E2M8 idea brought forward in this way.