What are your ten favorite maps of all time?

!!! WARNING - OMNIDUMP INCOMING! I REPEAT, OMNIDUMP INCOMING! - WARNING !!!

 

Ah, what a nice thread, I think I just post a little list...

18 hours ago, rd. said:

if you feel like explaining

 

Oh no. Oh nononono. You didn't say that. You do not want to say that. What have you done...

 

Whatever happens next, is on you rd. Maybe this shall teach you caution. Here it comes!

 

...

 

Jokes aside, this is probably my longest post yet, just shy of 4,000 words long. Enjoy!

 

Albtraum-haus, by @years (E2M5 of Nihility: Infinite Teeth)

It was hard to choose a single map from Nihility as my definitive 'favourite'. In the end, I decided that Albtraum-haus encompassed the widest range of the set's attributes in the most easily-consumable package.

All that I am about to say is more a reflection on the entire set, rather than anything specific to the map itself. Nihility is extremely consistent across the board, quite unlike the original E2, so generalizations tend to be actually meaningful.

The Shores of Hell is my favourite episode of the original Doom by a fair margin. The moody atmosphere, abstract level design and sense of ever-deepening insanity never fail to draw me into Hall and Petersen's nightmare. The main issue I have with the episode is its wildly varying quality and lack of cohesion.

Nihility takes all the disparate themes of E2, binds them all together into a cohesive whole, and then expands upon the result in striking and lateral ways. Above all, the extensive dehacked work makes it feel more like some sort of single-episode expansion pack for the original Doom rather than a simple fan set.

Albtraum-haus perfectly embodies the strengths of Nihility. The atmosphere in particular is so think you could cut it with a bread knife. Moody lighting, precise texture choice and a surprisingly vertical layout make the modestly-proportioned map feel both immense and claustrophobic at the same time.

The soundscape is the real star of the show, however, despite being completely devoid of music. A dynamic mix of cleverly-implemented ambient sounds and the moaning, snarling and grunting of the map's monstrous inhabitants adds immensely to the unsettling atmosphere.

Honestly, I could analyze Nihility's design all day, but I think just a little restraint is called for this time. In summary, this set is one of the most cohesive, technically-competent and unique PWADs on the market. I love everything about it.

Years, I hope you return someday. I have a niggling sensation that your interpretation of hell would blow the community's socks right off!

 

 

Bang Head, by @Scypek2 (MAP03 of Three's A Crowd)

Scypek2 is the truest successor to Sandy Petersen I have yet seen, pushing vanilla far beyond its limits in the most bizarre, lateral and often frustrating ways. His mastery of the surreal is unmatched, at least in his chosen format.

Three's A Crowd is a monumental achievement, immensely creative and original, drenched in atmosphere and bound together by a surprisingly compelling narrative, told almost entirely through the environment.

Bang Head is the first map that comes to mind when I think of 3IAC, which is a bit strange, since it is not really that exceptional in the context of the set. Lightbringer and Wrong Turn are surely more technically accomplished, Sheer Poison is undeniably more narratively compelling, Pushback is vastly more conventionally enjoyable, Under Control Still is decidedly more unhinged...

You get the idea.

So, what is it about the comparatively-plain MAP03 that makes it so exceptional? In objective terms, nothing really. Subjectively, everything about it. In no uncertain terms, this is the map that made me fall in love with 3IAC.

There is something viscerally compelling about Bang Head, some of which due to the wider context (if you've played the previous two maps, you'll know what I mean) and some of which is specific to the map itself.

Being deprived of all weapons save the rocket launcher early on completely changes the combat dynamics of the map, centering the challenge around spatial awareness and careful aiming rather than reflex or optimal resource management (though that's important to).

This emphasis on space syngerizes extremely well with the surreal, Hell mansion aesthetic, forcing the player to pay close attention to the otherworldly layout in order to avoid blowing themselves to giblets.

Being forced to engage with the environment so carefully is the thing that flipped a switch in my brain, translocating me to Scypek2's hell for the entire runtime of the map. I am rarely this immersed in any map, or any game for that matter. The fantastic midi by Crucnhynut44 also helps immensely in giving the map's its exquisite vibe.

That is why I love Bang Head, and by extension, the whole of 3IAC, since the principle outlined above applies to many other maps in the set.

Scypek2 is a master of interactive world-building, and it is this skill, boosted by his grasp of contextualizing narrative and lateral implementation, that makes his maps truly special to me.

 

 

Blast Wave, by @skillsaw (MAP26 of Valiant)

This map is the embodiment of skillsaw, a sublime marriage of theme, gameplay and music, the platonic ideal of his signature style. 'Joyful' is the word that first comes to mind when describing Valiant's fifth episode, and the Blast Wave is the epitome of that feeling.

Skillsaw's Lunar aesthetic, first codified in Lunatic and perfected here, is my favourite of his many original visual themes. High-contrast semi-naturalistic lighting, crisp texture work and and extensive use of outdoor space define the style in my eyes, and all these elements are on full display here.

The fluid, energetic and dynamic combat that defines skillsaw's style synergizes brilliantly with the Lunar setting, the exotic locales giving the free-wheeling action a sense of breathless wonder.

I have never played, and likely will never play Gundam Wing: Endless Duel, but its superb soundtrack will forever be burned into my mind thanks to its pitch-perfect utilization in this episode of Valiant. A better marriage of style and music is hard to come by.

While it is true that the three pillars of skillsaw's style come together even better than usual here, Blast Wave is really just a stand-in for all of his best maps as far as I'm concerned, or at least the ones I've played.

I think that is what makes his sets so universally popular among all sections of the community. Some may turn their noses up at slow-burn adventure maps, others may find the challenges posed by Sunlust and its ilk too much to bear, but joy is something almost everyone understands, and skillsaw sets the gold-standard in that department.

 

Brigandine, by @Viggles

I wrote at length about this one already. I'll just copypaste it here for convenience's sake.

It is not every day that I get to describe a Doom map as art. I don't mean that in the generic 'every creative endeavor is art' kind of way. When I say Brigandine is 'art', I am being completely literal. It feels like a painting, rendered in sidedefs and sectors, that you just so happen to kill monsters in. Not that Viggles' combat leaves anything to be desired, to the contrary, Brigandine is one of the few maps I've played that manages to mix top-notch combat and downright autistic detailing.

There is a sense of composition here, of depth, of visual focus. The architecture draws the eye, directing you forwards, contextualizing the bewildering amount of detail into a readable whole. Not once did I find myself confused or lost, never was progression obscured or action hindered. And yet, like a vast piece of environment art, the finer details are not lost in the whole. Everywhere the eye may wander, there is something to note, some small detail, some inventive use of texture.

The layout is downright mesmerizing, organic and flowing, matching the feel of an ancient city, grown naturally over centuries, bound to the contours of the land. There are small, hidden places, seemingly forgotten, contrasting against the vastness of the whole. Some of these are secrets, meant to be found, and others purely ornamental, serving no other function than to fill a given space with something. Few voids remain within the bounds of the level, almost all space made use of.

Similar close attention is given to the wider world, beyond the scope of the map's progression. Beyond the confines of the playspace, the city continues, carefully constructed architecture unbound by the limitations of interactivity giving the impression of an vast city, stretching outwards and outwards until eventually melting into the domineering skybox.

There is a palpable sense of place to this city, the impression of a world both larger and more intimate than Doom's ability to render. This place may once have been a magnificent utopia, but for reasons unknown it has fallen to the demonic hordes. Perhaps the city was wholly innocent, undeserving of its fate, or perhaps its inhabitants brought armageddon upon themselves? Brigandine gives us no clues, but it is fun to consider.

All this gives a powerful sense of context to the gameplay, which is focused primarily on combat, with exploration being a secondary task. The resource balance is fine-tuned to a truly incredible degree: never once did I run dry, yet never did I feel that the map would withhold punishment for my mistakes. This allows the combat to really shine, each encounter almost pitch-perfect in its pacing and balance.

Brigandine, despite its outrageous linedef count, is a relatively short and linear map, eliminating any risk of it overstaying its welcome. It is a precise experience, smooth and professional, every element fine-tuned to perfection over its two and a half year long development.

Quality of life seems to have been a priority for Viggles, which manifests in so many small ways, like the almost complete lack of obstructive detailing or the fact that the vast majority of linedefs have been tagged as invisible to keep the automap clear of clutter.

In summary, Brigandine is a masterpiece of a map, an interactive work of art, with care and attention given to the smallest detail, from geometry to gameplay to atmosphere. I have returned to this map many times in the past, and look forward to the many times I shall revisit it the future.

 

Carrol St. Station, by @Xaser (E5M4 of Doom: The Lost Episode)

I said to myself when making this list that I would only include one map per mapper and one map per wad. This left me in a bit of a pickle, because Xaser is one of my favourite mappers, mainly for his work on NEIS and Syringe, but I couldn't think of an appropriate map to represent him.

The former set is an issue because as much as I love his contributions, it would be both inaccurate and grossly unfair to NT to choose one of Xaser's contributions as the one and only NEIS map to feature in this list.

The latter is problematic because all of my favourite maps in it are collaborations, which just wouldn't do. I needed a Xasermap, one that I had played to completion and enjoyed immensely.

What about dead.wire or dead.air? Both are excellent, but I haven't even finished the former nor plumbed the depths of the latter. Plus, both are UDMF (I think), which is not to my taste.

Then it hit me. There is one other set Xaser worked on, one that I have played in its entirety, one, incidentally, with a great degree of resemblance to NEIS. I am of course talking about Doom: The Lost Episode, a lesser-known fifth episode 'replacement' for Ultimate Doom.

The Lost Episode is an odd-ball set, compiling and revising various console-exclusive or alpha maps and re-contextualizing them into an acid-trip of an episode. It requires ZDoom to run despite the fact that the maps themselves are limit-removing (I think), and includes some D2 monsters along with the SSG. Odd indeed.

Of its nine maps, one for me stands head and shoulders above the rest, in terms of immersion, vision, gameplay and general memorability: E5M4: Carrol St. Station.
At first glance, this map does not seem much like a Xaser map. The beautiful and elaborate shapes that define his layouts are not present, replaced with simple boxes.

However, as one ventures deeper, Xaser's touch becomes more and more apparent. Small spirals, triangles and other shapes start appearing in the geometry, bizarre yet appropriate texture choices start to catch the eye, ingenious puzzles tease the mind. By the time the map's dark secret is revealed, its intent made clear, one can no longer disassociate the map from its maker. Carrol St. Station is Xaser to the core.

Xaser's style is defined by many, many things, but what I love most about his work is that whatever it my look like on the surface, whatever context it may exist within, one could never mistake it for anything else.

There is a subtle ingenuity unique to Xaser's output, an unmistakable eccentricity. And that is what I love about it.

 

Core Processor, by @cannonball (E2M7 of Return to Hadron Episode 2)

Cannonball's signature style is one of the most subtly distinctive in the entire community. There are many visual signifiers, patterns in layout and preferences in monster combination that define the style, none of which are as immediately noticeable as the defining traits of other mappers on this list.

His maps are a-contextual, lacking in any sense of place and with apparently generic (though highly competent) themes.

This meant that I tended to overlook his stuff, even consider it overrated at times. I didn't get it, not until I tried Return to Hadron for the second time, resolving to take the challenge seriously for the first time.

It was a revelation. Something just clicked in my brain, and I finally understood what made people love his stuff: cannonball maps are fucking delightful.
Words actually fail to convey the feeling of murderous zen that comes over me when I'm stuck deep in the action of RtH. There is something so fluid, dynamic, free about the combat in his maps.

There are few overwrought encounters, giant set-pieces or annoying traps. Just pure, free-form, unrestrained slaughter.

His choice to use only D1's limited bestiary suddenly made sense as the stroke of genius it truly is. The simple attack patterns of the zombieman, shotgunner, pinky, caco, baron and cyber synergize brilliantly with this style of play, allowing the player to stay constantly on the move with fear of being perforated by chaingunners, incinerated by stray mancubus fireballs, zapped by archviles, chased by tracers or melted by criss-crossing streams of arachnotron plasma.

The visuals also take on new meaning in this context, easily-readable, time-efficient to create and pleasing to behold if not terribly engaging, perfect as the backdrop for the main attraction.

Core Processor is everything I love about RtH and cannoball's style in general, up-scaled to titanic proportions, offering a half hour's worth of non-stop action.

 

Fomalhaut, by @Mechadon (MAP10 of Ty Halderman Tribute: Threnody)

Mechadon has one of the most distinctive styles in Doom-dom, one that I have a great degree of appreciation for.

His maps are, more often than not, big, like, really big. Not Sunder-big, mind, a different sort, the kind that sprawls outward, seemingly aimless, yet always managing to fold back in on itself and establish a firm sense of progression.

Despite their scale, there is a paradoxical sense of intimacy to Mechadon's maps. Every section is carefully, artfully constructed, adorned with inset detailing, all carefully interwoven into the overall design of the map.

There is no conflict between large and small, every aspect of the layout and detailing flows seamlessly into the next. One of the most distinctive aspects of his style is the lack of opaque void spaces between segments: more often than not, you can observe an area long before you actually reach it.

This sense of organic vastness is the defining aspect of the style to me, making each map feel like an epic adventure. Counterattack is probably the definitive Mech set in my eyes, and it along with the Vela-Pax beta comprise the majority of my exposure to his work.

There is one issue that I have with many of his works, however, a direct result of his organic style: the progression is often either confusing, or simply drawn-out, with sections feeling as though they exist simply for their own sake despite lacking any standout features of their own. The experience of the map often blurs together into an enjoyable but undefined sequence of pretty room after pretty room, with few outstanding moments to anchor the experience.

This problem has consistently undermined my enjoyment of his maps. Not to any great extent, mind, but just enough to make them fall short of true greatness, despite the obscene amount of work poured into each.

Enter Fomalhaut. This map is truly something special, well-deserving of its spot in the top 100 most memorable maps. Everything I have said thus far about Mechadon's work is on full display here, yet somehow tempered into a more focused but no less grand experience.

I'm not sure why this is the case, perhaps Mech felt the need to rein it in a bit, so as not to hurt the pacing of the whole set? I could not even begin to guess. Regardless, there is a noticeable difference in pacing between Fomalhaut and Counterattack or Vela-Pax, at least to my memory.

The encounters seem to just stand out more, the progression simply seems less confusing and there is a strong, unified sense of place to the whole experience. Fomalhaut feels like a massive, monolithic techbase surrounded by a beautiful naturalistic cave system, rather than an abstract, open-air labyrinth.

To me, this map is Mechadon's masterpiece, though admittedly I have yet to play the last couple of Counterattack maps in full or finish Vela-Pax, but I don't think my assumption will be challenged easily.

 

The Kerberos Complex, by @antares031 (MAP06 of Antaresian Reliquary)

Out of all the mappers in the Doom Community, antares031 is probably the one I respect the most. He brings together so many disparate skills to create some of the most cohesive, bold and original content in all Doom-dom. He is one of the few 'full-stack' creators, who makes his own visual themes, weapons, monsters, decorations and textures.

The only part of the stack antares doesn't do himself is create music, and even then his music choices are so unique and so well-placed that he might as well have made each track personally. Fortress 2 Blue's soundtrack belongs to him, as far as I'm concerned. More people on the english-speaking web have heard it through his wads than the source, I'd wager!

Antares' ability to induce a potent sense of joy is second only to skillsaw's, and his overarching sense of unique vision may exceed even the block-busting pun-slinging king-of-Doom himself.

Above all, the aspect of antares' work that stands out the most to me is the weapons. Oh god, the weapons. Both Struggle and Reliquary have completely revamped arsenals. Each weapon is faster, punchier and deadlier than its vanilla counterpart. In the latter, weapon switching is also much faster, resulting in an absolutely frenetic style of play.

Both sets also have modified monster rosters, with a general increase in lethality to match the arsenal. Between the two, almost any possibility of grind is neutralized.

Despite his immense body of work, I had little difficultly selecting The Kerberos Complex as my favourite. This absolute crown jewel of a map encapsulates everything I love about antares' style, from its autistic detailing, vast, interconnected layout, superb texturing and glorious free-wheeling combat, all underlined by a blood-pumping midi, which poetically is also the theme of Struggle's first map, bringing his entire body of work full-circle.

If this section comes off as a bit more rambly and unfocused than the previous entries, that is simply because I have too many good things to say, and not enough time to say them. I hope I managed to get my point across.

 

Misri Halek, by Kim Andre-Malde (MAP20 of Alien Vendetta)

What can I say about this one that has not already been said? While it may not be as impressive as some modern maps, it is profound experience nevertheless. The sublime midi certainly helps with that, but there is something truly special about Misri Halek, something beyond words.

A kernel of this nameless sensation permeates Alien Vendetta, a sense of deep melancholy contrasted against epic adventure, fleshed out to its fullest in MAP10 & MAP20. No megawad has had the same emotional impact on me as AV, and Kim Andre-Malde's work is the cornerstone of the set, anchoring everything in place.

Misri Halek is a truly unique experience, visionary, bold, ground-breaking for its time, fully deserving of its status as the most memorable map in Doom history. I can only imagine what Kim Andre-Malde could have become if his life was not cut so cruelly short. 

Rest in peace.

 

Sanctuary of Filth, by @NaturalTvventy (E4M6 of No End In Sight)

How fortuitous that this map just so happened to end up at the end of the list. Save the best till last, I always say.

I'll be upfront here: NaturalTvventy is my favourite mapper, and No End In Sight is the main reason I learned how to map in the first place. Hur hur, Omni sad, very funny, yada yada. No more irony, its gushing time.

More than any other set, more than Alien Vendetta, more than Three's A Crowd, more even than Nihility, No End In Sight immerses me, draws me in, makes me interface with its world, engage with its malign designs.

No End In Sight is also a journey, for the player and seemingly NT himself, a dual revelation. Based on the first seven maps alone, one might dismiss the set as yet another part of the vast DTWiD cinematic universe, a mere spin-off, not unwelcome, but not strictly warranted either.

E1M7 changes all that. The well-made and mildly subversive E1 techbases that came before suddenly give way to a miniature adventure map, still Phobos, but with a Xaserian spin, an edge of madness quite unlike what came before.

The second episode seems to kick off a friendly competition between the two main mappers, each trying to one-up the other in terms of originality and vision.
The Depths of Doom is a drastic improvement over the first episode, taking the player on a journey across worlds, from gloomy, corrupted techbases to derelict spacecraft and illusory castles. NT and Xaser approach parity, as the former's maps begin to display a deepening insanity, a descent into hellish abstraction.

Woe continues the game of one upmanship, only this time the goal seems to be to find out who can brutalize the player the most. While Xaser's The Grinder is surely a painful experience, NT's Anomaly Retribution is in a class unto itself, a torturous, mind-bending adventure across various hellish realms. It is however the final proper map of the episode, E3M7, that solidifies NT's dominance with its vast, inscrutable depths and truly ingenious secrets.

Bloodstained Earth is the most memorable part of NEIS, containing a home-run of six truly exceptional maps. NT begins the episode strong, setting an impressive standard with E4M2, which gives new meaning to the word devious. Xaser counters by moving laterally, making one of the best city maps ever in E4M3. NT is on a roll though, and strikes back with E4M4, probably the closest approximation of a hellish invasion I've yet seen in a Doom wad.

It is with E4M6 though that NT truly cements himself as one of Doom's greatest mappers. Xaser's final riposte in E4M7: Vacumm Consortium, impressive and ingenious as it is, simply cannot compete with the magnitude of this accomplishment.

E4M6 is the epitome, the final form, the platonic ideal of all NEIS strives to be. A vast, hostile megastructure, crawling with hell's denizens, disorientingly vertical, inscrutable to the point of frustration. Sanctuary of Filth is the single most cruel, demented and brilliant map I have ever played, and one of the most difficult.

It took me four hours across three playthroughs and multiple consultations with a map editor to finally unravel this masterpiece, to 100% complete it. I had to save scum like hell to do it, dying dozens of times to monsters, traps or simple attrition. Never before have I been so ground down by a Doom map, so filled with bitter determination to see it through, to prove that the end is in sight after all.

This is NT's apotheosis, his magnum opus. To me, this is NEIS' final map, its ultimate challenge.

This is really hard. I've played so many "A+" maps I find it tough to commit to any. FOMO is a real concern: "pick one, but that means I'll miss out on another map so maybe I want that other map instead, but wait the first map was actually better, but no maybe actually I want this entirely different map, but sigh that means I won't find a spot for 'Habitat' so--"

 

As ReaperAA suggested, there is also an element of what exactly I might be in the mood for at a given time. 

 

But so far this is the unordered list I was working on, just more well known things to start (with close runners-up in parentheses): 

 

Quote

Ancient Aliens m24 
Eviternity m15 (m26)
Counterattack m02 [this kinda shows its quick devtime if you compare the aesthetics to other big, impressive Mechadon maps, but imo it's Mech's most intoxicatingly fun map]
Lost Civilization m20 (m13, m02) 
Valiant episode 1 [cheating and considering this one map]
Sunlust [cheating and considering this one map]  Sunlust m20 (or m16 or m29, or Swim with the Whales m02)

 

Although every other episode of Valiant has a map that I like more than or as much as 06 or 07, the 01-07 stretch, combined, is my favorite contiguous interval of Valiant, and I wanted to highlight that. It's a way of acknowledging that a "map" is an arbitrary unit. 

 

Have some incomplete brainstorming (many of these are probably in my top-50 at least, but it's not exhaustive either, god there's so much Doom): 

 

Quote

Mapwich 2 m10 (m05)
- any early-mapset Big Ol' Billy map with combatless sections or no combat at all - 
favorite Nihility map
favorite JPCP map

favorite JPLeBreton fun project map (also generally, pore over all the smaller, more idiosyncratic maps with lots of Doomcute I've played -- there are probably 2-3 of those in my top-20)

favorite AD_79 map [that is an author not a mapset] 

favorite "pure fun slaughter-light gameplay map" that isn't all that well known or ambitious ["microslaughter" like Shai'tan's Luck's best two maps? Cannonball's smaller Doom 2 maps, a smaller map in SF2012, a good small BFG spam map?]

favorite Darkwave map [author again]

favorite Heretic map [the game, not the speedrunner]

favorite random '90s or '00s map I've tried on idgames

favorite BTSX e2 map

Return to Necropolis m02 (or was that m01?) if unfinished projects are okay

--SPOILER-- and --SPOILER-- if unreleased projects are okay

maybe just add another Mechmap too

favorite TNT:R map (Pinchy's Superweapons Facility, or maybe the best Dobu-coauthored map (probably m12)?)

theoretical: if you have a million supercomputers running for the entirety of the universe's life, cranking out Oblige maps, one of them might actually be amazing

Slaughtermax m11
Spidersilk

[made-up silliness] if nonexistent projects are okay

comb through '00s mapsets again

replay No End in Sight because I might really appreciate e4 this time around

play Adventures of Square e2 and Golden Souls 2, would be surprised if I don't end up really loving one map in one of those

big Z projects that I have played (Ashes 2063, Winter's Fury, etc.) 

favorite thing from Dimension of the Boomed, Avactor, Nova 2, Antaresian _____ Preacher, etc. -- recent projects like that
favorite Back to Basics map 
Draft Excluder e4m3

favorite pure slaughter/challenge/NIH map. Abandon 15?/13?/11?  

 

Also nothing after November 2020 is in this post, otherwise I'd have a top-10 relatively easily. Uh... yeah 2021 has been a really good year of Doom so far. 

There's a lot of potential ways to approach this question, but ultimately I've decided I'm just gonna go with what my heart says and ignore things like how impressive maps are from a technical perspective, how popular maps are, etc.

 

The main reason for this is that it's really hard for me to judge contemporary maps with that same starry-eyed feeling I had playing wads as a kid.. A feeling I can tell some people still possess based on their responses! In my lifetime, I've been through multiple phases when it comes to my relationship with Doom/WADs: there's a big difference between when I was young and easily impressed by just about anything in the way of custom content, VS being a 20 year mapping veteran who knows most of the tricks of the trade. The sense of mystery is "gone", replaced with a thorough knowledge of how mapping works under the hood. Something lost, something gained, although I'd say the trade was well worth it, as now I get that sense of childlike joy from the process of mapping itself.

 

By no means am I saying I've "mastered the craft" or any such pretentious rubbish, but that sense of mystery surrounding the process of mapping/modding Doom made it really easy for WADs to enter my good graces in that early, formative Dooming period of my life. Now I can look at maps well and truly beyond anything I played back then in a technical sense and - despite acknowledging how gorgeous and impressive it is - there's every chance I won't even remember it the next day.. and that's by no means the fault of the mapper or their gorgeous work: this is probably not only due to that old sense of "magical mystery" being gone, but due to the general oversaturation of the modern WAD market. It's only natural that seeing something for the 700th time is going to be less mind-blowingly amazing than the first 699 times, even if that 700th one was technically the best when you consider all it's merits.

 

I see some people here who are like walking encyclopedias of their favorite Doom mapsets. I'm impressed by that, and a little bit jealous. Some time between the 30th and 50th and 100th and 1000th WAD I played, I lost most of my ability to remember where one ends and the next one begins, with a few rare exceptions - and even with those, I remember the "wad as a whole" and would never be able to recall which stand-out bits came from which specific map within the wad.

 

In this thread and various others of a similar nature, I see people being like "Yeah, that spot 1/3rd of the way through Eviternity Map22? That shit is my jam" and I'm just thinking damn, I wish I still had that ol' starry-eyed feeling when playing wads, where I can remember a particular spot in a particular wad with fond reverence! That's a real rarity for me these days. Still, there's no way I'd trade the technical understanding for the aforementioned sense of "magic and mystery". Fun as that is (was), mapping and modding, and in some cases teaching others, gives me greater joy than that childlike-wonder ever did.

 

TL;DR: Just put it this way, if you're looking for a list of the actual "best wads", you're not gonna find it from me. What you're gonna find instead are the wads that left the greatest impression on me. Not only did being young make me more easily entertained, but additionally the overall standards have also changed a great deal since then - what was once incredible/rare is now commonplace, and that of course has a big impact on how works are received.

 

 

..alright, I think that's enough pointless qualifying of my opinions! What are we talking about again...? Oh yeah, a top 10 list! In no particular order:

 

Memento Mori Map02 (The Bridge). This level has such a strong sense of atmosphere, largely credited to the incredible track Dreadnaught by Mark Klem building up in the background, only to crescendo right around the time the map starts to bare some teeth. The combination of new music, new texturing, solid mapping and the sense of still having a full journey ahead of me compounded into a very memorable moment in my Dooming lifetime and cemented MM's eternal place in my heart as a source of inspiration.

 

DWANGO5 Map01. I've had probably thousands of matches on this map in total, no exaggeration. It's the definitive dueling arena of all time, as far as I'm concerned - it's only one of countless Entryway modifications, but this one just hit all the right notes in all the right ways to be considered the best iwad-remix DM map ever made, not only by me, but by the majority of deathmatchers and duelists over the years. It's a pillar of Doom deathmatch that I feel everyone should play at least once.

 

Don't Be A Bitch Remastered Map01 (Fade). This is an example of a modern work that impressed me so much it managed to enter the rarely-expanded pool of post-2000 works I remember vividly and have played many times over. It is quite literally the perfect blend of what made oldschool Deathmatch great and what makes newschool maps so nice for the common Doomer: things like player and weapon spawn spots are fine-tuned to a T, the map strikes the perfect balance of roominess and coziness, and to top it all off this beautifully-textured arena is coupled with one of the most gorgeous background tunes I've heard in the realm of Doom content (composed by jdagenet). I guess the fact that this map was made by Decay, one of my closest friends in the Doom community, colors my view just a bit - but even if it was made by someone I'd never met, this map would forever sit high on my list of deathmatch recommendations.

 

UDM3 Map04 (The Cool Map). UDM3 was the first time I had ever seen a custom color palette in Doom, and this map managed to bring out the beauty of the new color choices. Seeing a stunning little beach with nice turquoise water (as opposed to the Royal Blue that comes stock standard with Doom) just floored me, I really felt like I could smell the salt water in the air. The choice of using Gerudo Valley was simply perfect - the song fit the map like a glove, with that beautiful acoustic guitar and brass combo. It's just another fine example that a map doesn't have to be technically impressive - it's all about the feeling it makes you feel, and with just a small arena and just a small handful of sectors, this map easily rushed right into the list of "most memorable Doom creations". The gameplay is fast, endearing and timeless, serving as a perfect bow on the adorable little package that is this map.

 

Drown in Blood - (I guess Map01 if we have to pick just one). Playing this wad in old ZDaemon servers was an absolute treat. Usually it would be loaded alongside a mod that makes the player's weapons FAR tougher/faster so that you could cut through a thousand or more demons like a hot knife through butter. It's hard for me to whittle this wad down to one map, because the whole thing is quite an experience (even though it was seemingly never finished). I had NEVER seen monster counts this high before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had more monsters in total than any wad that had ever come before, circa 2005. The joy of cutting through literally thousands of Hell Knights and Barons with 4-8 people, all of us armed with SSGs that fire faster than the stock chaingun... that is something that I will truly hold near and dear til I'm 6 feet under. It was also a very early example of a true slaughter wad - playing it in the era from which it came inherently meant witnessing the birth of what would become a full and developed genre of it's own. Jesus, what a time to be a Doomer...

 

I've already written about the following 5 maps in great detail, as they are childhood wads that I played during that aforementioned "starry-eyed" period, where all custom content was surrounded by that aura of mystery. Rather than pointlessly re-stating the same old stuff, I'll just quote an older post I made on the subject:

On 8/26/2019 at 3:26 AM, Doomkid said:

Most of the wads I played as a child are seemingly forgotten gems, with the exception of DoomCity which has been given it’s due love over the years. Ironically, it’s probably the one new Doomers would be least impressed with, but back in the day it was like a perfect template for what newbie authors “should” do - Clean minimalist design, easy but engaging encounters, classy but limited use of custom textures, a custom sky to give it a unique identity and even a cool custom MIDI, homemade no less. I couldn’t articulate it but even back then it really, really inspired me to get into level design.

 

Hellrun for Doom 2 was my first ever slaughtermap, though perhaps it’s too tame to be called that today (I didn’t play Plutonia/Go2it til the 00s). I spent hours and hours and hours playing Hellrun as a kid and never got bored, for me it is the pinnacle of “replayable, interconnected, well-designed 90’s Doom maps”. If DoomCity is a great template for newbie mappers, Hellrun is the template for once you get comfortable with mapping. It still has pretty big balls considering it’s age, too - good luck when the unexpected wave of revenants and barons just decides to show up! Fun to be had!

 

Area51 was the wad that introduced me to custom monsters! Even if they were just reskins, holy shit did they add to the experience. Storming that fenced-off base while the Mission Impossible theme plays and the troopers are shouting “There he is! Stop him!”.. Man, that’s the shit nostalgia is made of. People may scoff nowadays but this wad taught me the importance of setting, theme, story and “sense of purpose”. Despite having aged, Area51 provided me with this feeling that I was actually getting somewhere, actually doing something - It wasn’t just “generic techbase #1538”. Even today, the importance of purpose is overlooked in the vast majority of wads, yet that is a huge chunk of why so many Doomers recall Doom1 as a better game than Doom2 despite the fact that Doom2 is superior from a technical perspective (and gameplay perspective imo). The feeling that you’re working towards something keeps the player immersed even when the gameplay ain’t super hot!

 

Bermuda starts the player off in a small crashed plane near the corpse of his buddy, it was a very memorable opening area to me, a cool way to pique the players interest. The map is largeish and has decent gameplay even though some parts are a little tedious. Perhaps it is just another wad in the wall, there’s no design philosophy case study I can make for this one - it simply is a super solid map that deserves to be remembered even though I’m apparently the only one who does.

 

Deepatak is what comes out if you puke up all the most awesome elements of 90s mapping/modding into a blender. That’s not an insult! It’s kind of disgusting but hot damn this thing is fun! Idk if it can be called underrated, I know at some point it was sorta popular since it used to come with DeePsea so perhaps a lot of people have seen it, but it’s big, fun and easily worth your time. Also that What Is Love MIDI... just fucking 👌. Maybe the fact that it was a tad messy and kinda gross, yet very effective was supposed to be a representation of DeePsea itself. If that was the goal then it hit the mark, spot-on (yeah I went there!!)

 

None of those get the love they deserve, but they all had an enormous impact on my wad designing approach, the inspiration is strong. In their own ways they made me extremely eager to get into wad building.

 

..If anyone actually read all this, I commend you!

Edited April 19, 2021 by Doomkid