Review by Colin Phipps

Decimate is a single level for Doom 2, set in a large stone building surrounded by gardens and a moat. Outside, where the player starts, the level has a really great ambience, because it's dark and gloomy with large lanterns illuminating only parts of the lawn. There are also some nice fountains in the garden, and the main buildings and a couple of large towers either side loom over the player in the gloom. The level starts well, with the player having only a pistol and having to dodge imps both wandering the garden and shooting in from the surrounding wall, with no choice but to charge headlong into the building in the hope of getting some decent weapons.

Inside the building is good too, with a nice wood and stone theme and lots of torches for lighting. The rooms are nice and large (a common design error with buildings surrounded by outdoor areas is to design them to fit into too small a hole, instead of the other way around - no such problem here), and together with the large windows it continues the airy but gloomy ambience from the outside part. There are no easy weapons early on, you get only what you can kill for, and there are a good mix of former humans and more heavyweight enemies for resistance.

The level progression is good, with a series of switches to hit in the outer towers and the main building in order to make progress through the level. There are a number of good traps as the level goes on, and one big fight against a horde of demons which is quite testing on the player's crowd control skills.

On the downside, the level does have a couple of traps which are on the nasty side, so remember to save. The level is also very symmetrical, down to the level of monster placement and traps, which unfortunately takes the sting out of several fights - as they say, forewarned is forearmed. There is also a slight bug - some switches are protected behind bars, but one of these can be hit before the bars are lowered - but it doesn't seriously affect the level progression.

Overall, a very nice looking level with some good fights, although I felt forced to lower the rating for gameplay because of the symmetry.