What is your favourite secret Level?

[DynamiteKaitorn]

I'm curious, what is everyone's favourite secret level from DooM 1/2?

I personally am a massive fan of Warrens. Sure it's mostly a clone of E3M1 but I always had a soft spot for how much fun it is to run through and blast everything! (if it wasn't designed how it was, Military base would've won)

[ReX]

I'd have to agree that E3M9 is a clever secret level. The first time I played it I was confused as, well, hell, thinking I had accidentally restarted Episode 3.

 

As much as the secret levels are fun, I found it even more enjoyable to discover the respective exits to the secret levels. Finding secrets, especially those that are tantalizingly visible, is a huge bonus when playing a map.

[Deleted_Account]

Fortress of Mystery is best.

[SaladBadger]

I don't like a lot of the secret levels in the Doom series (nothing very remarkable about them) but I guess e3m9 is my most favorite, its a fun concept.

[Xaser]

Go 2 It

 

(Yes I'm bending the rules. Go away you lobster.)

[Marcaek]

The only actually entertaining secret levels were in Final Doom and beyond. The Doom1\2 secret maps are ass and have the worst music in the original IWADS to boot. I'll go with e4m9 for narrowly beating out the other maps.

[ShoDemo]

E1M9 Military Base is my favourite. Hiding the Secrets fits perfectly with the level and after all, it is my favourite track.

Plus, the level is small, action packed and pretty fun to navigate (being in the outdoor area, going down the stairs and blasting demons with the shotgun, e.t.c.).

 

A close second would be E3M9 Warrens, because the change at the end was totally unexpected. It is such a nice design choice in my opinion!

[THEBaratusII]

Doom E1M9 is also my favorite secret level, it's the first secret level I discovered while playing Doom in my younger days. :)

[Poncho]

Warrens is the best: who said a gimmick was inherently bad!?

[idbeholdME]

From most favorite to least favorite.

Doom 1

E4M9 - the most complete secret level of them all.

E3M9 - interesting experiment.

E2M9 - short but sweet. Also probably the most redundant exit puzzle ever.

E1M9 - feels like someone's experiment with mapping that got made into a full map.

 

Doom 2

Map32 - a nice replication of a Wolf 3D boss.

Map31 - the doubled scale doesn't play well at all.

[Deadwing]

I'll go with E4M9

[Crunchynut44]

I'm actually a huge fan of gimmick maps but I agree that the original games had terrible secret/super secret maps. I find that E3M9 is the best of the worst.

[VanaheimRanger]

5 hours ago, Xaser said:

Go 2 It

 

(Yes I'm bending the rules. Go away you lobster.)

If this is where we're going with it then my vote is Cyberden, and Go 2 It as a very close second.  When Beat Go 2 It after the splash screen telling me this was "The hardest level we got" I felt very relaxed for the remainder of Plutonia.

[Avoozl]

E4M9: Fear. I think the PSX version makes it a little more interesting with the added ambience of the music and coloured lighting.

 

E1M9 is pretty cool too, simple but effective, it also has a useless but interesting spot of caged imps.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Avoozl

[Matthias]

Hectic (but yeah, not Doom 1/2)

Edited March 21, 2018 by Matthias
adding info

[seed]

1 hour ago, Matthias said:

Hectic (but yeah, not Doom 1/2)

 

...how? Just wondering what you found great about that map, it pissed me off so damn much when I played it...

 

As for the question of the topic, for me that's E3M9, followed by In the Void from Doom64.

[Visplane Overflow!]

E1M9 bcuz of its damn too good soundtrack!

[joshthenesnerd]

honestly, my favourite secret level is  e2m9 fortress of mystery. it's a very short level, but it keeps its action solid. both rooms have difficult encounters.

 

Spoiler

room 1 has a tense encounter with 4 barons which will catch anyone off guard if they aren't careful enough. right in the middle of the room is the mega armour. and after the long trek the last level was you're gonna need it. but, for the crazies like me who like to leave the level with 200-200 you gotta hold off. avoiding the baron plasma/fire balls and the armor at the same time is like a tense waltz. once you beat out those guys you got a nice breather. and you think you can relax so... you open the door. 10 cacodemons are there grinning in delight. the situation got way more tense than the last! suddenly even more fireballs are launching at you. you realize the "intended" plan of attack was to head in here first and get some infighting going, unfortunately it's too late for that. the smart thing to now do is back up into the other room and get more cover. but you're not smart. you're a stupid idiot who stood there long enough for the door to close and it's too late to wait for the door to open when you activate it. quickly you rush around the room humping the walls trying to find the exit. eventually you find the break in the pattern and you find the exit. a key, switch movement puzzle. almost like it was designed so you couldn't get out easily without dealing with the encounter (it's not redundant, it's to keep you in the encounter if you're rushing.) eventually you deal with all the cacodemons and you think you can relax once more. but last time you thought that 10 cacodemons almost kicked your ass. so, you grab the soulsphere and the mega armor (narrowly avoiding sector-based damage on that first one). you take a breath, get your composure and head to the exit switch. and now you're off to one of the best levels in this episode.

and that's why it's my favourite. tense as all hell. and each room (if done in a particular way) will make lead you wish you had stayed in the last encounter.

[Luci]

I discovered the Fortress of Mystery just last week and I was thinking man, I wish I would have avoided this secret!!  

 

I died once but next round ripped through the whole place little by little and felt accomplished!

 

Multiquote is weird on mobile so my text has to be up here.

On 3/20/2018 at 9:47 PM, Ex Oblivione said:

Fortress of Mystery is best.

 

On 3/21/2018 at 8:02 AM, joshthenesnerd said:

honestly, my favourite secret level is  e2m9 fortress of mystery. it's a very short level, but it keeps its action solid. both rooms have difficult encounters.

 

  Hide contents

room 1 has a tense encounter with 4 barons which will catch anyone off guard if they aren't careful enough. right in the middle of the room is the mega armour. and after the long trek the last level was you're gonna need it. but, for the crazies like me who like to leave the level with 200-200 you gotta hold off. avoiding the baron plasma/fire balls and the armor at the same time is like a tense waltz. once you beat out those guys you got a nice breather. and you think you can relax so... you open the door. 10 cacodemons are there grinning in delight. the situation got way more tense than the last! suddenly even more fireballs are launching at you. you realize the "intended" plan of attack was to head in here first and get some infighting going, unfortunately it's too late for that. the smart thing to now do is back up into the other room and get more cover. but you're not smart. you're a stupid idiot who stood there long enough for the door to close and it's too late to wait for the door to open when you activate it. quickly you rush around the room humping the walls trying to find the exit. eventually you find the break in the pattern and you find the exit. a key, switch movement puzzle. almost like it was designed so you couldn't get out easily without dealing with the encounter (it's not redundant, it's to keep you in the encounter if you're rushing.) eventually you deal with all the cacodemons and you think you can relax once more. but last time you thought that 10 cacodemons almost kicked your ass. so, you grab the soulsphere and the mega armor (narrowly avoiding sector-based damage on that first one). you take a breath, get your composure and head to the exit switch. and now you're off to one of the best levels in this episode.

and that's why it's my favourite. tense as all hell. and each room (if done in a particular way) will make lead you wish you had stayed in the last encounter.

 

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Probably E3M9 - Warrens.  The gimmick of it was pretty neat.  E1M9 - Military Base would be the other probable contender but it's just a level, not really any gimmick of secret-level-ness about it.  Fortress of Mystery is meh, the Doom 2 secret levels are just sucky easter eggs, I barely remember anything about E4M9, and most of what I remember about the Final Doom ones were that TNT had a map that was literally broken and Plutonia had that MAP01 edit crammed up with a ton of monsters.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

On 21/03/2018 at 12:04 PM, Matthias said:

Hectic (but yeah, not Doom 1/2)

 

If I'm not mistaken "The Aquifier" is one of heretic's secret levels. If so it's probably the only one I like for being the only one I got to during my first run around of Heretic XD

Edited March 24, 2018 by DynamiteKaitorn
Typo Fix

[DiEnd]

E3M9 is my favorite. That gimmick works nicely.

[HavoX]

Wolfenstein, without a doubt. It's a shame (but understandable) it was censored in the BFG Edition Doom II IWAD.

Edited March 24, 2018 by HavoX

[Rocketman]

I really liked the Wolfenstein 3D levels but E1M9 tops the cake.

[xAn]

E3M9, followed by E1M9.

[Luci]

9 hours ago, xAn said:

E3M9, followed by E1M9.

 

I'm going to have to find those. Fortress of Mystery was a shock, but I haven't stumbled into the others.

 

I know the entrance to E1M9 is in the Toxin Refinery, but I've yet to find it. When I finish episode 3 I'll go back and replay. Delta Touch has been a trip... I've gotten to where I like it better than desktop.

[mrthejoshmon]

E4M9 Is the tits and I love it.

 

Can't put Pharaoh because it's not allowed and that bothers me.

Edited March 25, 2018 by mrthejoshmon

[RedGyarados]

Cyberden !!! The atmosphere along with the music is super good.

[GamingMarine]

The Wolfenstein levels, obviously.

[Grain of Salt]

Possibly "The Marshes"