09/05/2006 @15:06:27 ^15:48:45

Industrial: probably will be the last time I play this

Continuing with shit I played in 2002 we have Industrial. I've mentioned this before a couple of times.

This map goes on and on forever, it's like six levels joined together or something. Hardly any of the sections have any relation to any of the others, they're almost entirely disconnected other than having to do all of them in order to open the next one. There are invisible doors everywhere which you have to find to make progress. It's really annoying and takes absolutely ages - the first time I did this map it took 5 hours of game time, this time I got it down to 2 but still that is ridiculous.

Furthermore it's stuffed with monsters, over 1300 of them. However the size of the level means they're fairly thinly distributed - for the most part. In fact what happens is that every so often you get a trap where the monster density ramps up to unmanageable proportions. See for example the room with the super shotgun in, if you even can be bothered to get that far.

The map divides into sections

• The start area, which is a crate maze. If you can find the secret doors to the switches that let you into it, that is. On the other side is a red door.
• You first have to find the red key the route to which is hidden somewhere inside one of those secret doors you found earlier. This route takes you through a number of 1024x1024 squares with varying layouts. Ammunition is very very low. Each area is a huge struggle and your prize is invariably another invisible door opening to get you to the next one. Watch for: the room with the four boxes of revenants, the room with the 16 switches down one side (the aforementioned ssg is in here somewhere), the huge chamber of slime, etc.
• If you managed to get that far - I didn't, I cheated - you go back to the red door and work your way round a number of other miscellaneous situations similar to the last bullet point; they're a bit smaller though, it won't take quite as long. Eventually you'll loop back round to the start area, but higher up so you can run over the top of the crates instead of among them. Now the idea is to run over the crates to a secret door in the corner across from the red door. If you don't know it's there it's very easy to miss and/or fall off the crates and have to run all the way round again to get back up. UGH.
• Then it's the Big Dark Corridor! Work your way around here as doors on either side fly open and monsters are released. What a pain! One side area contains about 50 revenants but you need to do it as you need the plasma gun. Another is a huge flooded chamber crossed by fake 3d bridges (and the first enormous monster teleporter). At the end is a spiderdemon.
• Then you're outside in the fresh air, this area is huge and full of monsters, you run up one side and they all pop up out of the ground, then the other side has another big teleporter and some cyberdemons guarding a key. Also, there are all these little doors on either side of the arena which open up and are full of chaingunners, revenants etc. If you get all the way across you can get inside and find another key.
• Finally you have to go back and then the last key opens up a branch of the Long Dark Corridor that's pretty much more of the same. The exit is this way, past a room full of archviles, a tricky set of jumps on pillars over poison, and a sinking floor with tons of monsters hiding underneath. The exit itself is up on a ledge between four cyberdemons and a spider.

The sting in the tail is that to get into the exit you have to creep along a tiny ledge that unfortunately is blocked by a torch below if you're not using a port that does proper 3d thing clipping. However I have recently discovered that it is possible to strafejump past it, something which I didn't know was possible four years ago. So I guess I'm still improving as a player then!!

Seriously it's probably not worth the bother. Read Doom underground's review, it's pretty funny, especially the part about "monster" levels.