[Doom] WRECK.WAD - E1M1 UV Maxdemo [60fps]

Pwad: Wreck.wad
Author: Unknown
Date: 25th June 1994
Map: e1m1
Category: UV Maxdemo
Executable: Doom.exe
Time: 3:28
This level was another submission to the PC Zone level design contest, which is why I've got no author information for it. A lot of those levels are only available on obscure shovelware discs, but you can find this one on the /idgames archive, in a compilation of the 25 "finalists" from the competition.
Which shows that the standard of entry in that particular competition can't have been very high, if mediocre stuff like this makes it to the finals. It's broken visually, with dozens of locations where the textures bleed through the walls, the result of a bad nodebuilder. Most of the rooms are empty and uninteresting, as well as far too big. And you can't get 100% kills - in the outdoor area by the bridge there's a pit with three demons in it, but it's too deep for you to be able to aim down from above, and if you drop down there's no way back up, leaving these enemies effectively unkillable. I tried to enlist the lost souls to maybe kill them with infighting, but there's not enough of them and the best I could manage was to kill off one.
Then there's the stuff that's just strange. Later in the level you'll find a dark room containing an altar. While you're fighting off a couple of spectres in the near-dark a voodoo doll of the player will rise out of the altar. If anything damages the voodoo doll even slightly it'll be pushed into a teleport line. Unfortunately for you, that teleporter is the only way out of this room, so if that happens you're screwed. There's also an invuln in the room, but telefragging a voodoo doll is instant death even if you're invulnerable.
It's a very odd sequence. And I think that's my major problem with this level. What is this place? What's the theme of this level? I don't have a textfile to tell me, but I shouldn't need one. Most levels succeed in communicating their location to the player, be it a house level, or a starship, or an outdoor garden. At a basic level, design is storytelling. But I can't read a story here. That voodoo doll trap, for instance - what does it mean? Why is a Doom marine standing on an altar, and why punish me with death if I disturb it slightly? Why give me the invuln if it does nothing? I feel like the author had some idea in mind when he created this section but it doesn't come across to the player at all.
My run here is okay. Nothing really goes wrong, but I didn't spend too much time on it, mostly because not being able to get 100% kills meant I didn't have much incentive to perfect the run. It was always going to be imperfect.

[@criminaltrap74]

well done, Marine

[@Hyalyago]

It is not possibly what it meant to be but think of the invuln sphere as a kind of light amp visor to be able to see in the darkness while you benefit from invulnerability. You take the best from both things.

[@tpoppins]

I thought your description of the level sounded familiar, and indeed it's WRECK.WAD from ace_dwf on /idgames, demoed by Maikl sometime in late Paleozoic. Perhaps you should do the whole set, IIRC there are only two lemons like this one in it - DAVES2ND and RD1 (the latter finally received a demo along with a map fix last year). Most of the rest are small, neat action-filled maps. Yeah, the nodes are pretty bad, there's some tutti-frutti in vanilla as well. The 95% kills max is the map's biggest flaw. Don't think even Andy could overcome it with TAS.

[@Spectans1]

Keyboard only players are insane:D

[@PartyCrasher04]

What were his controls I wonder?

[@kotzugi]

Butt ugly map. You must be glad to have it done. :)