My 11 Most Memorable Skillsaw Maps

[baja blast rd.]

On a whim, I did a roundup of the maps and moments in skillsaw's catalog that have stood out as most "memorable" to me, as of today (this is not a rigorous thing). I think skillsaw's approach to mapping, which puts a lot of emphasis on cool moments, is well suited to this treatment, so feel free to share your own personal lists. The concept of "memorability" is of course very subjective and personal -- don't let anyone tell you otherwise. ;) 

(For clarity, the maps on this list are skillsaw-authored only, so for example Ancient Aliens's "Culture Shock" is not here because of that.) 
 

11: Ancient Aliens map16 (Leave Your Sol Behind) 

 

Even if the clean design in a lot of skillsaw works is thought of as a modern Scythe 2 -- polished abstraction with strong themes -- maps like "The Mancubian Candidate," like "The Ancient Navajo Wolf Warp," like "Leave Your Sol Behind" show a really crucial difference: where Alm's works are static objects that prize purity, skillsaw, by comparison, is a lot about movement. 

 

"Leave Your Sol Behind" works as a shining example of that, an ambitious adventure through many worlds that is held in harmony by the implied motion of an UFO. You don't quite get to drive it, but you do get to operate it with keys and watch stars zip across the screen as the ship screams through space.

 

"Leave Your Sol Behind" marks the divide between the cheerier bright-blue rave parties of the "Applied Einstein" episode and something more like a "dark nebula" cluster, with its masses of alien flesh and imposing technogothic structures.

 

10: Valiant map06 (Engineering Disaster)

(Oops, I don't feel like retaking it.)

 

If the best compact Valiant maps, like "Implosion," are replayable morsels that stick to one or two fun things and explore them in many ways, the more extensive ones, like, "Engineering Disaster," are often sandboxes that pile in a bunch of the fun things Valiant has to offer within a broader wavelength. 

 

And "Engineering Disaster" -- a ruined, water-lodged city that has seen housing costs plummet to zero at the expense of having to die to live here (it's in the lease contract) -- is one of the best at showing that range. Just about every monster in Valiant thus far gets a feature fight or notable use. Even when you have the big guns, including Valiant's first BFG, the smaller guns have their uses. You can make dramatic leaps off buildings, pillage for secrets, and there is even a cranky spidermom fight. 

 

It might not be my favorite Valiant map, but along with "Rocket Zone 2," it sure makes a case as a good "one map from every megawad" desert island choice. 

 

9: Valiant map14 (Implosion)

 

The tiny opener of Valiant's third episode explicates one of the best ways to make a splash over a limited runtime: choose a single fun mechanic, like blowing up imps with barrels, and run wild with it, supporting it with enough in the way of other skirmishes and fights that the map is a full-fledged map instead of a one gimmick pony. 

 

It is really fun, to the point where "Implosion" is one of my favorite maps in Valiant. But isn't it easy to just fill rooms with barrels and imps and call it a day?  

 

In "Implosion," the smartness of the design is a fundamental optionality in how the player can use the abundant barrels, the flexibility of which lets the player to use barrels in subtly different ways each time (even if they aren't consciously trying). It's not "shepherd imps in one prescribed fashion every time with varying degrees of success, repeat for the next part, etc." 

 

I think that is a big part of why "Implosion" is so fun to replay, not just to play. 

 

8: Ancient Aliens map15 (Wormhole Junction)

(I have god mode on specifically to focus on the screenshot, in case you're wondering with the screen isn't a deep red.) 

 

"Wormhole Junction" is a bit like Speed of Doom's "Blessed Hellscape" (map26) or Sunlust's "Lost Antiques" (map16) -- good fun, but if you asked me on the day of first playing, I wouldn't have envisioned them fitting into a small list of personal highlights of the set. Fun, but not unusually exceptional in that way. Understated. 

 

It's only in the coming months, where that "let's play this again" feeling periodically surfaces, like a faint itch, every couple weeks or so. After enough times, I realize: hey, I love this map. In "Wormhole Junction," the kinetics of play -- what the gameplay asks me to do in a literal "physical" sense -- are invigorating.

 

I love tearing through the horde at the start spamming plasma to cut a clear lane, ignoring the pain elementals because I already know they can't do much. I love blending the five or so individual traps at the yellow key into one big soup, plunging for the BFG with archvile flames inches away, diving back out and triumphantly retaking control. 
 
It looks cool too, the visual peak of Ancient Aliens's space disco cluster. 

 

7: Ancient Aliens map10 (The Gift of Denial)

(... I'm going to find a better screenshot later.)

 

This one hits a lot of good notes for me. Its evergreen palaces are gorgeous with their arches and purple marble and buoyant lighting; every fight counts and is fun in a way unique to it, whether it's fodder demolition, sneaky deadly arachnotron streams, or cyber panic. 

 

What really stuck with me, in the memory sense, is the blue skull key setpiece, the way the floor dramatically plunges and then floats up in sync to the pulse and rhythm of the fight, a mechanical orchestra that evokes apocryphal legends of ancient automata and looks really sexy at that.

 

Events like this don't work so well through being technically impressive (for anyone with lots of experience in Boom mapping, wiring this up would be simple). What makes it tick is the creative vision underlying it. "The Gift of Denial's" blue skull key arena is just the perfect time and place, and it holds the appeal of a dance number that charms through elegance, through perfect motion, rather than technical showiness. 

 

6: Valiant map19 (The Popes of Roam)

 

"The Popes of Roam" stands out all the more for Valiant's ascetic stance towards siege cows. Four of Valiant's 19 total UV cybs are in this one -- or four of 12 if you exclude the secret slaughtermap, or four of four if you exclude every other map too.

 

The "Popes" pun is even more fitting because my reaction, when I played this first many years ago and realized that yes, really, I'm being chased by all of these in this cloistered lavaworn husk, was "holy shit." The rush of fear and adrenaline imprinted it into my Doom DNA. 

 

This is a rude, spicy counterpoint to "Implosion," a really fun tiny map that explores a single concept to its logical end: 

 

5: Valiant map15 (Screams aren't a crime... yet) 

 

*That fight*. 

 

(Yes that's my entire writing for this part. Thank you for reading.)

 

4: Valiant map07 (The Mancubian Candidate)

 

Mailed-in megawad Dead Simples with the same old recycling of the same old mechanics have been a meme for ages, and triangles haven't fared much better. If The Mancubian Candidate did nothing else but redeem the slot with a powerful twist on the concept, it would have been worth its weight in fat. 

 

But even by Valiant standards, the attention to worldbuilding and more abstract tenets of game design stand out. The archvile hitsquad that avenges His Corpulence is on full entombed display at the beginning, as is a sign that pictographically indicates "no mancubus corpse." Even when you don't grasp the gimmick until your obliviousness gets you torched, you can look back at those and feel it was "fair." 

 

Despite its brief runtime, the adventure has a strong arc to it, which is true in a physical sense too: a stylish path that goes start area -> tier 1 of main map -> up to tier 2 -> trace a U-shape across tier 2-> plunge into darkness. 

 

My favorite part about the mancubus is how, after you're done with the entry fight and ascend to the map's higher donut tier, 

 

Spoiler

it comically props itself to be a pest on the upper level of the map too, as if the mancubus is spitefully trying to get killed.

 

3: Lunatic map05 (The Final Countdown) -- and by extension, Valiant map27 (Rocket Zone II)

 

If you've been following the Doom scene for a while, you know that skillsaw has a great track record when it comes to making fun, highly regarded, award-winning, "institutionally" prized...puns.

 

While they mostly surface in map titles and references, "The Final Countdown" is what I think of as a musical pun. Set to a hectic but very forgiving lite-slaughter arena brawl, as signs all around the arena decrement from 10 to 1, Lunatic's closer is a seamless (and very silly) blend of in-game music, map concept, and meme that has stuck in my head. Not an earworm, but a mapworm. 

 

Some odd concepts in Doom end up sticking with me and making me think, "I'd love to play more maps that do this" -- and this is a rare case where I can't envision how it might be pulled off so successfully, or what track you might use. Many ill-suited tracks present themselves immediately, like Lunatic 2 map05: "'Baby' by Justin Bieber." But I'm drawing a blank on good ones. 
 

2: Ancient Aliens map01 (The Ancient Navajo Wolf Warp) 

 

This is peak "interactive cinema" in Doom: not too long after Ancient Aliens's trippy newfangled aesthetic greets you in washes of psychedelic color and howling wind ambiance... and a cow skull... you smoke a pipe in a tiny inlet temple, whereupon you are whisked into laser and voidspace and animal howls and thrown askew, quite rudely, into the glare of a really pissed-off cyberdemon. Survey the landscape for a while with your ass still alight from your metaphysical uprooting, and you might spot a berserk in a cloistered nook, dash for it, only to get trolled by a zombieman flung in to prevent your escape from the cyber rockets trailing you. And that is just the beginning. 

 

Much has been made of the "cyberdemon on map01" shock of Ancient Aliens, for good reason. Placing a cyberdemon on map01 alone might not have been enough. A big part of why this has resonated so well is that staging finesse. 

 

Okay I guess this is where I do this...

In no particular order, the maps I had on a shortlist, which I guess you can think of as "honorable mentions" are: Lunatic map03 (Rocket Zone), Vanguard map09 (Free Parking), Vanguard map11 (Temple of Asmodeus), Ancient Aliens map18 (Illuminati Revealed), Ancient Aliens map29 (The Ones Behind It All), Valiant map28 (A Lightbridge Too Far), Valiant map31 (Cyberwar 7734). In other days, I might have written about "Illuminati Revealed," "The Ones Behind It All," or "Cyberwar 7734" in place of the last two, and I might actually expand to 15 later this month if I get random thoughts about those. 

 

And now, there's one I'm sure everyone has been expecting. It's probably really obvious what is going to go here, but I guess I have to entertain it regardless. Without further ado...

 

Spoiler

1: Vanguard map13 (Punch Out)

 

Okay, this was basically a shoo-in, which might make my spoilering look naïve, but I just felt like being kind to people who haven't played it. 

 

In art, there is genius, but then, above even that, there is penius. In Punch Out, my favorite bit has to be

Spoiler

I hope I actually got someone

 

1: Heartland map01, map05, and map06 (Subway Sandwich, Titan of Industry, and Get Shafted)

 

The parts of Heartland that have stuck with me take a blend of the ideas I've written about above, and add yet another dimension -- some might say a third dimension. There is the interactive cinema, of setpieces that mix motion and fight staging artfully (my favorite of these is the scaffold sequence in "Titan of Industry," but all the train chase sequences throughout the episode are a good shout). There are the fun and absurdly rowdy spectacle fights, as in the later, escalating parts of "Get Shafted." The bed of music playing in the background has become indispensable, this time not because of any puns it offers, but because stewboy's midis, with their freewheeling harmonies and counterpoints, the myriad vibes they pulse and flit between, have become a perfect fit for skillsaw 2.0, the defining sonic footprint of the more realistic^[1], story-infused themes he started exploring after Valiant's texture-driven themes. [The defining sonic footprint before that was AAAAAAAAAAAAAA...]

 

Increasingly, craft and worldbuilding are objects of admiration: gas stations, telephones, courtesy giftboxes full of monsters, all sorts of stuff I don't have the construction vocabulary to describe, all in pretty sick looking 3D. The core mechanics would probably be unforgettable on their own: axes, flamethrowers, {spoiler}bomb launchers, dual SMGs...trains.  

 

In the megawad format, Valiant and Ancient Aliens were content to let single maps do a few things well; Heartland, on the other hand, stays a lot busier.

 

If we're being rigorous about it, the whole concept of "memorability" (whatever it's worth) needs more time than the month it's been since I last played Heartland to be properly gauged. But I'm not, and mostly felt like writing about things. 

 

[1] Before you object, what isn't realistic about Egypt in space with aliens and wolf warps and blue STARTAN?

 

 

Thanks for reading.

[Bridgeburner56]

S U P E R S T R U C T R U R E

[GarrettChan]

What? There's lu05 but not va27? You have way more in va27 than lu05... rig... ht? Wait... that's not right :P

 

Thanks for the writeup. I do like many of the maps that got picked here (maybe except va14), and yeah, they are quite unique and fun to play.

 

Sadly none of Vanguard got picked. I personally liked vg12 a bit, but I can see it's not special among these picks.

Edited May 2, 2021 by GarrettChan

[baja blast rd.]

 

17 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

What? There's lu05 but not va27? You have way more in va27 than lu05... rig... ht? Wait... that's not right :P

 

Read the header of "3" again.

 

17 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Sadly none of Vanguard got picked. I personally liked vg12 a bit, but I can see it's not special among these picks.

Yeah Vanguard is good and fun but I've found a lot of the things I like in it in better form elsewhere (including in subsequent wads by skillsaw). These are just my personal feelings, nothing to be sad about! :) 

[dmslr]

39 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Sadly none of Vanguard got picked. I personally liked vg12 a bit, but I can see it's not special among these picks.

I'm more surprised by Heartland not appearing in the list considering that rd is a big fan of EE.

[GarrettChan]

21 minutes ago, rd. said:

 

Read the header of "3" again.

Yeah Vanguard is good and fun but I've found a lot of the things I like in it in better form elsewhere (including in subsequent wads by skillsaw). These are just my personal feelings, nothing to be sad about! :) 

 

Ah crap... I just skip the line when I saw lu05...

 

I looked up lu/vg are from 2011 many times, but I forgot about this many times... It still strikes me a bit that it's actually a pretty good maps from 2011. Though they are basically all under the shadow of skillsaw's later work for sure.

 

Is there a chance that you'll write about somebody else in the future?

 

Just now, dmslr said:

I'm more surprised by Heartland not appearing in the list considering that rd is a big fan of EE.

Wait... did you click the spoilers? Or I understood that wrong...

Edited May 2, 2021 by GarrettChan

[dmslr]

4 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Wait... did you click the spoilers? Or I understood that wrong...

Oh shit. Lol. I didn't notice the spoiler under Vanguard map13. 😬 Kill me.

 

P.S. I genuinely believed it's the most memorable map for rd, well, because it is really memorable. 

Edited May 2, 2021 by dmslr

[baja blast rd.]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

Is there a chance that you'll write about somebody else in the future?

 

Yeah -- I don't have any specific ideas in mind atm, but I like the format. The next mapper (or mapset) probably won't be as well known or in a similar style, and I don't think I'll redo the "memorable" focus. I like the idea of mixing all of that up.

[Malurek]

Nothing is ever complete without a cyberdemon money shot to start your morning off right.

 

Kid tested.  Mother approved.

[whybmonotacrab]

Just wanted to say this was a fantastic read and I would 100% read more lists along these lines for other authors.

[Jacek Bourne]

I like the look of this. I like the idea of more write ups on other mappers even more.

[skillsaw]

Thanks @rd.! I enjoyed reading that.

 

I don't want to comment on my own maps much so I'm just going to meditate here on the concept of memorability.

 

I'm not sure what a good definition for "memorability" is (as in the OP, it's a subjective and personal quality ---- and, of course, a map can be memorable for bad reasons too.) But, going by your (delightful) descriptions, I've come up with a list of things to consider.

• Sense of Journey/adventure - Did I feel like I accomplished something by traversing the map?
• Complete dedication to a gameplay gimmick - Does this map utilize some element of the game in a way that is novel/unique and enjoyable/fun?
• Addictive gameplay and/or replayability - Do I feel compelled to play this map again? (in the case of a map like Wormhole Junction -- I think music selection is really important for this, particularly the 'addictive' angle)
• Unique setpiece events - Did something happen in the map's combat, dynamics, and/or usage of space that I haven't seen before?
• Subversion of popular tropes - Did the map break some unwritten rule in a way that was new to me and enjoyable?
• Narrative - Is the environment expressive enough to make sense of what's going on here? (I'm not sure, but I could be convinced this is just an element of a sense of journey)
• Visual spectacle - Did the appearance of the map (due to technical, artistic, or other reasons) leave an impression on me?

A lot of these can be accomplished by going in with a plan and sticking the landing (narrative, journey, gimmicks, spectacle), but some others are just the product of being in the right place at the right time (recognizing tropes to subvert). Hmm. I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm not even thinking of...

 

[Devalaous]

I am disappointed in the lack of gushing over the artistic genius that is Sector 666 Map06.

[Devalaous]

(As an actual serious post, don't forget about Skillsaw's other maps in other releases, or his earlier content. I recently ran through 'Nashville, Tennessee', and am currently running through Sector 666 and Aeternum. I'd be interested to see a remake/remaster of Sector 666, honestly.)

[Malurek]

5 hours ago, Devalaous said:

I am disappointed in the lack of gushing over the artistic genius that is Sector 666 Map06.

I just started sector 666, as well as a few other older mods like, nova, jenesis, 32.wad etc. The 32.wad is the file name, I don't remember what's actually called