The Waterfront

OMG I LOVE THIS MAP

Let's start with the fact that they literally give us free rein to explore the map with our pretty shotgun and I will always appreciate those things.

I love the ending because it is very silly and requires preparation to do it.

This map is beautiful and I love it.

PD: Contamination for you 

I was not expecting much out of this 1995 map I searched out on a whim, but this was a fun ten-minute excursion.

It starts off unremarkable. You're touring a bland-looking, extremely brown-textured city block, playing shotgun peekaboo with zombies and imps through the building fronts.

But as the boat by the harbor and the lighthouse in the distance both suggest, this is less a map about visuals and combat and more one about exploration and, the author's true love, presenting clever, creative ideas. What really makes it is the use of "fake sprites" as NPCs and decoys. While playing, I interpreted it as a simulated battle in progress, but according to the text file, the map is "haunted by the ghosts of dead players, some of whom are still firing their guns." There was another gag later I won't spoil that got me. This was also one of the earliest wads to intentionally use the archvile ghost bug, as one of its major "gimmicks," although the threat level is low enough you have to sort of go along with it. Throughout there are plenty of amusingly janky ClipArt- tier custom textures, including one massively overscaled radiation sign that I laughed at. The custom textures are used to support the gimmicks, which include sector machinery that you can operate, albeit nothing overly sophisticated.  

If it were much longer, I'd have started to feel the datedness of most everything but the creativity -- but it's short and sweet, so no big complaints. This would be a good candidate for a modern homage or remake.

For 1995 standards the level has very good visuals, okay custom gfx and above average level design. The map itself is not very big, but it´s still fun to play. 

Great visually, some clever ideas and well used sound replacement (final part in red key building, no spoilers). For it's age awesome!