Doom levels that you used to hate and learned to love

[Optimus]

Which are some of your previously hated Doom 1/2 (or even others) maps that learned to like by time?

 

Mine must be MAP24 the Chasm. As I've become much better at tightrope walking, those sections at the end are a much more positive challenge. I even kinda like when there is a similar section in some modern WAD (unless it's too long and very punishing) and I am challenging with the move skills over tight.

 

In the contrary, a map that I used to hate and still hate (although it's pretty interesting otherwise) is MAP19 the Citadel. I am always getting lost on this and you have to teleport from a room with 5 teleporters to the correct rooms to get some of the keys. There is a lot of backtracking to try other teleporters. I had similar dislike with E3M5 unholy cathedral, even though I kinda learned that better, it's a bit easier with it's teleporters but still can be confusing.

[LordEntr0py]

Most of The Shores of Hell.

I just... didn't get it the first time through. After the attention to architecture in Knee-Deep in the Dead, I was a little nonplussed with the more abstract style. It just didn't click.

Later, I learned to love it. I saw beyond the appearance to the gameplay, embraced the weirdness and realised that's what makes it great.

[P41R47]

At first, and this may be surprising to some, i found the whole mapset of TNT: Evilution to be quite... off from what i expected from a Doom experience, backthen.

I also suffered some maps as their progression was not consistent sometimes.

But for some reason i continually come back to it, even to feel again that i didn't enjoyed it much.

And i couldn't stop myself from coming back to it again and again, to the point that what i found as bad design at first, transformed into a perfectly and whole heartly thought design.

I realice that TNT: Evilution is NOT the usual Doom experience, it offers glimpses of the usual... but also something more.

Something that lurked underneath the design, the atmosphere, the music.

A completely different approach and intended effect than the other IWADs.

An interesting worldbuilding storytelling.

 

And so, TNT: Evilution becomes my favourite IWAD, mixing almost perfectly what i seek on a good Dooming experience.

[Omniarch]

Doom 2. All of it.

 

Back in april of last year, I bought Ultimate Doom on a whim, and quickly became addicted. There are many things I like about the original Doom, foremost among them is the abstract and atmospheric level design. To this day, I enjoy immersing myself in these spaces. Anyway, after bouncing off of E4, I soon discovered the concept of PWADs, and started consuming vast quantities of UD content. I had little interest in Doom 2 at the time, since I felt that there was more than enough entertainment to be had. After a couple of months, though, I got curious and decided to try it out.

 

I found the first six levels to be enjoyable enough, though lacking in atmosphere when compared with UD. My heart began to sink from MAP07 onward, until I finally reached MAP13 and bowed out in disgust, mainly due to the poor aesthetics and lack of narrative cohesion. At the time, I decided that the whole of the second episode of Doom 2 was nothing but a particularly inept attempt to mimic reality, with the first being little more than an modestly enjoyable mediocrity.

 

Months passed before I decided to give the IWAD another shot. D2TWiD was probably the main instigator of this, since I found it to be an atmospheric and immersive experience, so thought that I perhaps misjudged the original. When I finally replayed D2 with an open mind, I found a lot to love amidst the questionable design decisions and monotonous palette. In the intervening time, I had developed an appreciation for verticality in level design, and D2 has that quality in spades. The city levels that I so despised became the most interesting part of the IWAD to me, as I unraveled the secrets of MAP13 & 15, learning to appreciate the Z-axis in Doom, and the early maps I once considered mediocre are some of my most replayed IWAD levels.

 

All that is not to say that D2 is among my favourite wads, since the afore-mentioned ugliness and lack of narrative cohesion are still major turn offs for me. Regardless, I now respect and appreciate D2's virtues as much as I do UD's, though the latter will always be my favourite of the IWADs.

[Cipherz Gaming YT]

Definitely a LOT of Doom 1 and II. But I love all of Doom 1 now, but I really HATED Map 13: Downtown. But after learning to beat and speedrun it, it's now one of my favorite maps. 

[JezChrist]

The Shore of Hell too....

The mix between hell and tek is what the episode is about. I still balme Sandy for making the refinery and other absolutly horrible levels.
Halls of the damned and Containement area are thekind of level I enjoy the most, because of the backtracking you have to do to get optionnal area, not beacsue it is mandatory, but beacuse you just got the key you needed, and now, you have a new place to explore.

I still hate e3 and most of doom 2 though.

[DSC]

Not IWADs, but the entirety of Valiant and Ancient Aliens.

[Silhouette 03]

3 minutes ago, JezChrist said:

I still balme Sandy for making the refinery and other absolutly horrible levels.

To be fair, 18(plus E1M8) levels were dumped on him that were either half-finished or barebones.

[Stupid Bunny]

The first time I played Doom I was probably about 5-6 years old.  My dad would load it up for me with -nomonsters in the hope that it would make the game less scary.  I remember enjoying E1 but finding the next two episodes super creepy, with all the skulls and crushing ceilings and rivers of blood and whatnot.  Anyway I made it to E3M4 and just...it was too much for me at that age I guess.  The image of starting that level with the twitching body hanging from the ceiling, the morose wailing music in the background, the twisted scenery and gore everywhere, arguably made even more frightening by the fact that I was completely alone in this place...it got seared into my memory and gave me nightmares for a while and I wouldn't play Doom again for years.  When I came back to revisit the game like 8 years later I found that E3 was suddenly my favorite, and that the surreal, morbid atmosphere was suddenly fascinating.

[JezChrist]

The ennemies in OG doom being the less frightenning thing in the game.

 

[DaAndroid614]

episode 4 as a whole, especially e4m1. i used to absolutely hate that map but replaying it i've grown to like it quite a bit.
(except that NIN secret)

[Roofi]

Doom 2's maps in general. Despite being globally aesthetically unpleasing, they have memorable sequences , varied progression, good effective traps , a lot of height variations...

Edited January 21, 2021 by Roofi

[DRM-MAN]

E2M6, i used to hate, now i realize what it's trying to do.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Metal and Mount Pain. I first thought that they were the worst levels in TNT. But now I like them. (The only level I hate from TNT is habitat, seriously, I consider it a mediocre map with a really annoying sewer section)

[CivilianM91]

All of Final Doom. When I first started playing back in ‘04 I was gifted this set by my older brother and I fell in love with the first two games- I was young and stupid (13? I think?) so I didn’t really comprehend that Final Doom was a WAD pack rather than a full-blown sequel and I had a chip

on my shoulder for some time over a perceived “cop out” ending to such an epic trilogy. 
I grew outta that mindset towards it eventually and gave it a fair shake in recent years. Turns out a lot of it is pretty dope. 

[Boy]

I used to dislike Episode 2, but after a lot of replays I've pretty much done a 180. I think it's highs are higher than pretty much all of the rest of Doom 1 and 2.

[Uni]

E3M3: Pandemonium. This map is ugly as sin and has subpar gameplay but it also has a lot of interesting design choices and cool ideas. I used to brush it off as one of more bad levels of E3 along with House of Pain and Dis but it has grown on me and nowadays I learned to appreciate the amount of cool ideas and details Sandy and Tom used in it. Oh and did I mention it's (if I'm not mistaken) the only map that uses all of the liquid texture that doom has to offer, and that they all deal damage plus damaging sky?

Edited January 22, 2021 by Uni

[ChopBlock223]

As a kid I hated Tricks & Traps, but these days it's one of my favorite iwad maps. I've really grown to love Sandy's work over the years.

[CivilianM91]

15 minutes ago, ChopBlock223 said:

As a kid I hated Tricks & Traps, but these days it's one of my favorite iwad maps. I've really grown to love Sandy's work over the years.

I get why some of his maps are criticized but I doubt any of us would do better under that type of crunch. He was like id’s whipping boy in the early 90s.

[EvilNed]

6 hours ago, Uni said:

E3M3: Pandemonium. This map is ugly as sin and has subpar gameplay but it also has a lot of interesting design choices and cool ideas. I used to brush it off as one of more bad levels of E3 along with House of Pain and Dis but it has grown on me and nowadays I learned to appreciate the amount of cool ideas and details Sandy and Tom used in it. Oh and did I mention it's (if I'm not mistaken) the only map that uses all of the liquid texture that doom has to offer, and that they all deal damage plus damaging sky?

 

+1 on this. I like this map and whenever I think of Ep3 this is what springs to mind.

 

On the flip side, I think I used to enjoy Unholy Cathedral but nowadays I think it's pretty bad.