Review by Colin Phipps

SALUS V is an "orbital space junk recycling center" which has been taken over by monsters. Guess who gets to clean it out :-). It requires Boom to run, mainly because of some complicated areas which might have overloaded the original Doom.

The core of the level is a network of underground waste tunnels. Almost the entire level is done in this one style, grey stone and rusty metal. It gives the level a good atmosphere; the lighting is dark but not too dark, so the tunnels have a very murky feel.

However the style of the level gets boring after a while; everything is pretty dull, there is no great detail or lighting, and there is little variation from the standard textures. The tunnels have a very regular layout so it isn't easy to know where you are (I didn't find the automap that easy to use because of the many tunnels).

The initial fight in the tunnels is good, since there are monsters wandering all around so you have to find a corner to fight from. There are several good fights like this during the level. But most of the level consists of clearing lots of small rooms which lie in the spaces between tunnels. There are some nasty traps in these rooms, but basically they are all small, short fights; most of them can just be fought with a shotgun from the doorway.

The level progression is poor too. The red keycard is protected by yellow key barriers, but they are too widely spaced and you can slip between them; since I found the yellow key later I presume that this was not the author's intention. Also it was not clear where to exit once I had all the keys; I had explored almost all the level, but couldn't see a blue keydoor to try. Strangely I noticed a patch of badly textured wall in one tunnel, pressed on it, and the level ended!

Obviously I wasn't playing this level quite the way it was intended, but I can't see it being that much more exciting whichever order you play it in. There are more interesting levels.