A journey through some of video gaming's greatest levels. Or, the ones we like at least.
Last year, we celebrated thirty years since one of gaming's most Chad franchises was released and video games were never quite the same. I'm talking DOOM; the demon-slaying, metal as fuck game that popularised the first person shooter.
The premise of DOOM is as simple as Lenny from Of Mice and Men. YOU are an unnamed space marine, popularly known as Doomguy, stationed on the Union Aerospace Corporation's Mars base. Unfortunately, those sneaky bastards in the military have been conducting dangerous teleporter experiments and unsurprisingly the demons of hell invade. Everyone else gets their arse turned into a fine paste leaving only YOU to stop the demonic attack.
Fortunately, the Doomguy was off sick the day they were handing out fucks to give, so the ripping and tearing ensues. He storms the UAC base on the moon Phobos (Episode 1), dimension-hops to the abducted moon Deimos (Episode 2), before dropping down to Hell on balls of steel (Episode 3). It's like The Divine Comedy for guys with more muscles than books.
Developed by id Software, DOOM was genuinely a landmark title in the history of gaming. It took everything previous FPS games established (especially id's own Wolfenstein 3D) and dialled it up to eleven. The pace, the graphics, the violence, the god-damn key hunting, everything. In id's house, you shoot faster than me after 'it's been a while'; piss off Christians by (*checks notes*) killing demons; and spend five fucking hours searching for the fucking blue key on Mt. Erebus (E3M6).
If there's one level which I feel perfectly represents DOOM then it wouldn't be Hangar aka E1M1 because there's no convoluted labyrinths, laborious key hunts, or monsters that ambush you from nowhere like X users after you dare to have a slightly nuanced take.
But if I had to pick what I think is the very best level of the original DOOM then it would be Hangar aka E1M1.
It consists of about 5 rooms and 1 outdoor area, with a few corridors (some secret) in between. I've worked at places bigger than this map. And yet I know the layout better than I know the insides of your mum's thighs. You start off in a pillared room, that's varying degrees of grey except for the blue carpet (guess this military corporation had money left in their budget).
If you're playing on Ultraviolence, like a real man should, there'll be a lot of those shotgun zombie dudes here. Waste them, get a shotgun, armour, and the health pick ups. There's also a secret switch to get outside where more goodies await.
Continue onward and you'll come to a room with a load of computers and a storage area? It's difficult to tell what the various areas of Doom are supposed to be. So, let's call this the area where Iron blasts all over a bunch of guys. Next you come to an area that features a zigzagging path over a toxic waste pool. There's no safety barriers or the like here, so you take damage if you step off the path. Fortunately, it's relatively harmless so you don't instantly end up like Emil from Robocop.
It's in this room you first encounter the iconic brown fireball throwing imps. These shit coloured little guys are easily dispatched but can be an issue when in numbers, which is exactly what the voices tell me about women. The imps shouldn't be a problem. There's a few secrets here - you can also get to the outside pool area from here and also get up to where the imps are located (from the next room).
The next area, a little T-shaped junction, features the exit but in your way are pistol zombies, shotgun zombies, and imps. Just aim your gun, blast away, and congratulations - you've just passed your intensive US police officer training course.
Enjoyed this piece? Then check out our Doom 64 Review, Doom (2016) Review, and Doom Comic Review); see Venice (Tomb Raider II) for this series' first instalment, or Road to Silent Hill (Silent Hill 2) for the previous instalment.
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