Review by DrCrypt

I want to give this level a higher rating, but the little things in it make me have to mark it down. It had a lot of parts in it that I -really- liked: in fact, I think this is a pretty advanced level, having been made in 1994. However, there were enough little "quirks" in the level right off the bat that had me gnashing my teeth in anguish.

Typical military base that leads directly to hell sort of level (can DOOM do anything else?). It isn't particularly bloody: in fact, I think I left the level just running past about 40 monsters. This level has a really nice style to it: I want to say that the level flows very organically, in that I mean there are very few sharp corners, and it seems to fold in upon itself. Passages usually arc and bend instead of turn at sharp angles. The texturing choices are atmospheric and blend in very well together, and the lighting is suitably moody.

So what makes me mark this level down? Well, for one thing, a couple of doors that are absolutely -key- to continuing the level are behind unmarked secret doors. This is a big no-no, in my book. This is compounded by the fact that the author misleads you into thinking that you need to find a secret in the wrong part of the map to continue: essentially, you get the red key, go through the only red door, and find that it's a dead end. So you search like crazy in these rooms for a secret wall or switch (there are two very conspicuous red skull door traks in these rooms which I fiddled with for a while trying to figure out why they were there), only to discover that the real path is only a few feet away from where you got the red key in the first place. Lame: it had me on IRC typing, in all capital letters, "WHERE THE HELL IS THIS <expletive> KEY? AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Furthermore, there are some minor texture alignments, and a part where monsters start taking potshots at you from behind a 2-s wall. This is another no-no... as far as I'm concerned, even in the fantastical DOOM universe, you should not be able to shoot through a wall without any holes in it.

Overall, a decent level, and I think innovative for the time. It just has enough minor annoyances at the beginning of it to have soured me towards the entire product.