What is your favorite Doom 2 level ?

[Henso Akira]

Me my favorite Doom level is The Waste Tunnels

[DSC]

I really like city levels, so I must give Downtown and Industrial Zone a mention. Who knows, perhaps the city level archetype would never exist withouth them...

[seed]

Underhalls, The Chasm, The Inmost Dens, The Living End, The Factory, Circle of Death, Monster Condo, and Bloodfalls.

Edited December 23, 2019 by seed
Forgot some essentials.

[Foodles]

Gotcha! for the iconic mastermind-cyberdemon fight

[hybridial]

2 hours ago, seed said:

Underhalls, The Chasm, and Bloodfalls.

 

I see you are not perturbed by sewer levels or narrow walkways my friend.

 

I would go with O of Destruction and The Living End, I think Romero did really well with those levels and they felt the most alien and "classic Doom". 

 

I also love Perfect Hatred, so I am a weirdo. 

[seed]

Just now, hybridial said:

I see you are not perturbed by sewer levels or narrow walkways my friend.

 

I would go with O of Destruction and The Living End, I think Romero did really well with those levels and they felt the most alien and "classic Doom". 

 

I also love Perfect Hatred, so I am a weirdo. 

 

Oh I hate sewers levels usually too. But none of those maps are one :p .

 

The Chasm gets a lot of hate for its walkways, and that's exactly its point - you vs the game, or rather, physics. No RNG, nothing.

[hybridial]

Just now, seed said:

 

Oh I hate sewers levels usually too. But none of those maps are one :p .

 

The Chasm gets a lot of hate for its walkways, and that's exactly its point - you vs the game, or rather, physics. No RNG, nothing.

 

Well The Underhalls is debatably one, I like it though. I have to tell the truth, I think Doom 2 the way Id did had a lot more levels I have positive feelings towards than Vanilla Doom 2. 

[seed]

1 minute ago, hybridial said:

Well The Underhalls is debatably one, I like it though. I have to tell the truth, I think Doom 2 the way Id did had a lot more levels I have positive feelings towards than Vanilla Doom 2. 

 

Huh, my opinion is the exact opposite. DTWID was great, but D2TWID was inferior to both the first in the series and vanilla Doom 2 (don't even get me started on UDTWID, oh boy :p ). Unlike others, I like all Doom 2 maps. Granted some more than others, but the point still stands.

 

Underhalls is a flooded techbase level with blue water and full of atmosphere, there's nothing in it that resembles sewers even slightly, except the presence of pipes, but that's where the similarities stop.

[hybridial]

@seedyeah I was playing Ultimate Doom the way Id did and like by the 5th level I was just done and God mode'd it to the end. I don't think its terrible, I like a lot of the architecture, I think its strong enough there, but the difficulty gets so cheap. 

 

I'd say D2TWID was not as consistently good as DTWID but I really liked some of its levels, and only really specifically disliked 2 or 3 of them. The biggest thing Doom 2 adds for me is the gameplay (the new monsters and super shotgun really do enhance things) but in terms of the levels, I really don't think its great. Its fine, it holds up and is worth playing, but it has issues.

 

And I kinda feel I need to blame Sandy Petersen for most of that, though I know he got the biggest workload which probably forced him into corners. 

Edited December 22, 2019 by hybridial

[seed]

11 minutes ago, hybridial said:

@ Seed yeah I was playing Ultimate Doom the way Id did and like by the 5th level I was just done and God mode'd it to the end. I don't think its terrible, I like a lot of the architecture, I think its strong enough there, but the difficulty gets so cheap. 

 

I'd say D2TWID was not as consistently good as DTWID but I really liked some of its levels, and only really specifically disliked 2 or 3 of them. The biggest thing Doom 2 adds for me is the gameplay (the new monsters and super shotgun really do enhance things) but in terms of the levels, I really don't think its great. Its fine, it holds up and is worth playing, but it has issues.

 

And I kinda feel I need to blame Sandy Petersen for most of that, though I know he got the biggest workload which probably forced him into corners. 

 

Yep, at this point it's basically official that Sandy and Doom 2's maps are universally hated on DW (wouldn't be surprised if the folks at ZDoom Forums hold the same views). I guess liking these 2 things will always be a minority opinion.

 

Indeed, Doom 2's biggest contribution was to the modding scene. It expanded the bestiary (some of them were meant to be part of the original by the way, but were not finished in time), and the SSG really changed how the game played. Ironically though, Sandy was also influential, even if perhaps unconsciously, as despite the hatred for his style, his maps are very gameplay centric and they undeniably play better than almost if not all of the original Doom. Or that's my opinion about his maps anyway, the fact that most of his maps weren't as pretty as the original's attracted a shitstorm from the community.

 

Not surprised you didn't enjoy UDTWID, I hated it for the exact same reasons - cheap ass (and sheer) brutality. TFC was more difficult than the first 3 Episodes, but none of them took it to sadistic levels and it was fun even when you died, like with all good things. UDTWID was all about brutality, and zero about actual fun. Easily one of the most unenjoyable wads I've played, and I've played plenty, esp difficult ones.

Edited December 22, 2019 by seed

[hybridial]

@seedThy Flesh Consumed's only real issue is the level placement, Hell Beneath and Perfect Hated are a sadistic way to open, and I think Hell Beneath is also trash, American McGee done some great stuff in later id games and I loved the first Alice but Hell Beneath is like the Bad Day LA of his Id software contributions :P

 

But I actually think Perfect Hatred is one of the best ever Doom levels, it just should have come later. The rest of the episode is good, I really like all of it aside from Hell Beneath, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't that hard it was just the brutal opening. 

 

UDTWID did not get that memo because the first two levels are alright but 4 onwards makes Plutonia look like a calm day at the beach. 

[seed]

1 minute ago, hybridial said:

@seedThy Flesh Consumed's only real issue is the level placement, Hell Beneath and Perfect Hated are a sadistic way to open, and I think Hell Beneath is also trash, American McGee done some great stuff in later id games and I loved the first Alice but Hell Beneath is like the Bad Day LA of his Id software contributions :P

 

But I actually think Perfect Hatred is one of the best ever Doom levels, it just should have come later. The rest of the episode is good, I really like all of it aside from Hell Beneath, and contrary to popular belief it wasn't that hard it was just the brutal opening. 

 

UDTWID did not get that memo because the first two levels are alright but 4 onwards makes Plutonia look like a calm day at the beach. 

 

I think both maps are great :p . And no, they're by no means as difficult as some claim.

 

The problem is that both maps are short, had they placed them later in the order they would've been way too short for what was expected from progression (the maps expanding, that sort of thing), naturally. They should have just made the later maps more difficult, but for some reason they did not.

 

UDTWID turned into rage city after the first 3 maps or so for me. I remember one of them was annoying with the hitscanners behind windows, but after that things just got obnoxious. Too easy to get killed, and not in a way that was fun or where you felt like it was your fault for sucking, but because the authors wanted you to die as many times as possible, regardless of whether the player thinks that's fun or not.

[reflex17]

Singleplayer: 

 

Underhalls

Dead Simple

The Pit

Refueling Base

The Factory

Downtown

Industrial Zone

Suburbs

The Courtyard

The Citadel

The Chasm

Monster Condo

The Spirit World

The Living End <---- favorite

 

Deathmatch:

 

Entryway

The Gantlet

Dead Simple

O of Destruction

The Factory

Downtown

Suburbs

The Inmost Dens

The Courtyard

The Chasm <---- favorite

Monster Condo

Edited December 22, 2019 by reflex17

[Hisymak]

For me, I would say MAP10: Refueling base. First reason is because there are very, very lot of weak monsters (zombiemen, shotgun guys), and it was always satisfying for me to kill them (with RL or gibbing with BFG) or watch killing each other. The second reason is the number of secrets. This map has plenty of them, probably the most in the whole game, filled with various goodies. It's fun finding them, there are also several teleports in them.

On the second place, it would be MAP14: The Inmost Dens. I like especially the design and look of the level, and the secrets too. I also like how I can find levels obviously inspired by this one, in several other megawads and mappacks (best example Plutonia MAP18).

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Barrel's O' Fun. Not many people like map 23 but personally I don't mind its design. I agree it'll never be the best map but BoF is surprisingly funny when you randomly blow up an imp without trying to aim for any of the barrels as well as this map made arch viles easy to kill (for the most part). The ending is rather poorly designed however.

 

Another map I wanna shout out is Entryway. Yes, THE entryway. Compared to most other map openings for DooM, I'd say Entryway is the most memorable for not only giving you 3 extra weapons right out of the gate (if you find every secret of course), but it was also the inspiration for Go2It, Plutonia's 32nd map.

 

Lastly I wanna give some love to The Pit. Map 09 is almost always where I grabbed my first BFG as well as it's one of only a handful of levels with a fully unique song not re-used elsewhere in DooM II. Usually I try to grab as much health and ammo as I can before finishing this map as sadly the map that follows, Refueling base, does not come with a well designed starting area...

[DOEL]

7 because it's so intense, 8, 23 because they're interesting, and 27, 28 for being hard.

Edited December 23, 2019 by DOEL

[Maximum Matt]

The Living End like a murrfurr 

[Koff3Katt]

Map 04: The Focus

Home of my favorite Doom II song

[Gerardo194]

Grosse

[Horus]

Spirit World, easily

[Poncho1]

A toss up between The Spirit World (great hellish design, awesome gameplay, brilliant enemy placement) and The Chasm (white knuckle tension, and good design to be seen too). 

 

Though, as I've probably stated before, all Doom II maps are good. 

[Eurisko]

Tricks and Traps and/or Dead Simple.

[Job]

The Focus > all other levels 

[KickAss]

Hallo,

in order of appearance:

1. The Pit - Map09
2. 'O' of Destruction - Map11
3. Industrial Zone - Map15
4. Tenements - Map17
5. The Abandoned Mines - Map26

These are my top-five DooM ][ Maps.

[Firedust]

Suburbs, Courtyard or Living End.

[Jason]

Barrels o Fun!!

[Boaby Kenobi]

9 hours ago, Eurisko said:

Tricks and Traps and/or Dead Simple.

T&T is one I remember as it took me ages back in the day to figure out the optional way to clear the rooms without getting slaughtered.

 

I like the design of Gantlet even though it's a pretty short map.

[00_Zombie_00]

Map16: Suburbs

[OniriA]

Entryway, Industrial Zone and The Living End.

 

Oh and "Gotcha!" aswell. 

Edited December 24, 2019 by OniriA

[Andromeda]

Tricks and Traps.