Trying to Make Sense of Doom 2's Maps - An Interpretation

[GermanPeter]

 

This is a video I've been meaning to make for the longest time.

In it, I tried to analyze and interpret Doom 2's levels, to see if I could figure out what they're meant to represent. There were many surprising things I discovered, especially in regards to how many "city" levels there really are, and that some of the less-eventful-looking stages are sometimes the most interesting.

 

I'd really love to hear what you think and what your own interpretations of certain maps are. I took all of them at face value, including the two Wolfenstein levels and even things like the secret Romero head!

Hope you enjoy :)

[pavera]

Super fun video. I love these interpretations, almost convinces me that they were actually thinking of these things while pumping these maps out, haha. 

[GermanPeter]

20 minutes ago, pavera said:

Super fun video. I love these interpretations, almost convinces me that they were actually thinking of these things while pumping these maps out, haha. 

I'm convinced that a couple of these (like the Waste Tunnels being a set of ruined apartment buildings) were completely intentional. Not sure if Entryway is really meant to be a train station though :P

[natashanightmare]

Personally i have allways viewed the glowing arrows on the floor in the dark section of map 5 as these emergency spots on floors to lead people out during emergencies.

Like those in this image (spoilered cause it is a big image) :)

 

Spoiler

 

[GermanPeter]

7 minutes ago, natashanightmare said:

Personally i have allways viewed the glowing arrows on the floor in the dark section of map 5 as these emergency spots on floors to lead people out during emergencies.

Like those in this image (spoilered cause it is a big image) :)

 

  Hide contents

 

That's so clever, I hadn't even considered that! I legitimately thought they were just doing a Downtown and added random arrows so the player would know where to go!

[DaliVinci]

This is so good. I love how philosophical hell gets. I love how the city levels depict the invasion brutally. Doom 1's levels are easier to pinpoint what they ARE, but they can also see a shorter video making sense of each room. (like, what even is happening in E2M1? That's not how a lab is? So what were they before hell consumed it.)

The Abandoned Mines are my favourite here. Digging far too deep into hell is such a great concept that goes so hard and the environmental storytelling really sells itself here.

[pavera]

This is also interesting to me because, as someone who participated in the creation of Doom 2 the Way id Did, I absolutely did not go to this level of detailed thinking while designing my three levels, one for Sandy, one for Romero, and one for American. We spent a lot of time studying the way they drew linedefs, the way they liked to build their geometry, texture choices, etc. But (at least speaking for myself), I don't think much consideration was ever really given to what the spaces in Doom 2 actually represented in the minds of their creators. Part of me wants to say, it's likely they weren't thinking this hard about it, but maybe we never gave them the benefit of the doubt? Maybe Downtown *is* actually brilliant (it is), and the giant arrow *is* actually a great, thoughtful design choice (it is).

[NiGHTMARE]

56 minutes ago, GermanPeter said:

Not sure if Entryway is really meant to be a train station though :P

 

I always thought of it as an airport terminal. The very start seems like where you'd board a plane (or spacecraft I guess). I've very much leaned into this idea for my WIP Doom 2 "remaster".

 

I've also reinterpreted Inmost Dens as part of a subway system for the remaster, but that's more due to the original level feeling out of place for its episode.

 

The Citadel I think may be a subverted city hall, and again have leaned into that idea.

 

It'll be interesting to watch this video and see if we came to any of the same conclusions.

Edited February 9 by NiGHTMARE

[SiFi270]

I want to send this video back in time to Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver. The first Doom book had plenty of "oh, they mean this exact location in the original game!" moments, but they were ditched in the sequel. The closest they get is including the cyber/spider fight from Map20, which now, ironically enough considering your interpretation of the start of this adventure, happens on a train.

 

Of course, I'd also make sure to send them clearer pictures of revenants. Stuff like sprites from the neural upscale pack, or maybe even screenshots of their modern counterparts?

[Donowa]

i never really thought that much about what doom 2's levels were supposed to be, but i always thought of the weird crooked bridge in e1m1 and the platform the imp is on as a broken bridge (kinda like the ones in hl1) and a balcony, and now that i think of it the weird box thing in the computer room could be a shipping container.
i agree with the doom 2 maps having screwy scale, as they're not only restrained by technical limits but also are designed for deathmatch

Edited February 9 by Donowa

[GermanPeter]

52 minutes ago, NiGHTMARE said:

I always thought of it as an airport terminal. The very start seems like where you'd board a plane (or spacecraft I guess). I've very much leaned into this idea for my WIP Doom 2 "remaster".

That makes sense, actually! I guess the little "tunnel" at the start with the chainsaw is similar to those you use to board planes. I always thought that's where Doomguy parked his spaceship at the start, though the manual suggests he walked there on foot.

Really can't see the other interpretations though, especially the Inmost Dens being a subway :D But then again, if hell corrupted it, it makes sense.

 

10 minutes ago, Donowa said:

i never really thought that much about what doom 2's levels were supposed to be, but i always thought of the weird crooked bridge in e1m1 and the platform the imp is on as a broken bridge

Oh, absolutely. There was a joke WAD about making E1M1 safer by putting guard rails on the side, but like... it's not meant to look like that in the first place. The room got flooded. There's a few sections in the first game where the toxic pits were there from the start, but that's not one of them.
What shipping container do you mean? Can you post a screenshot?

[Donowa]

1 minute ago, GermanPeter said:

What shipping container do you mean? Can you post a screenshot?

this area

[GermanPeter]

5 minutes ago, Donowa said:

this area

I always thought that was one of the several computers you can walk inside for some reason. Maybe a server farm.

[Amaruψ]

Your disappointment has completely convinced me not to make fun of the arrow. I'm sorry, I'll now repent from my sins.

[GermanPeter]

23 minutes ago, Amaruψ said:

Your disappointment has completely convinced me not to make fun of the arrow. I'm sorry, I'll now repent from my sins.

You are forgiven.

For now.

[OniriA]

I guess the analysis of the secret levels would be something along the lines of "Ja, das ist ein schloss der Wolfenstein denke ich" 

Edited February 9 by OniriA

[Amaruψ]

I've always considered the Icon of Sin to be a steampunk, or rather more closely a Giger-esque take on Dante's Inferno with a bit of Lovecraft thrown into the mix. In Dante's Inferno, Satan is frozen in time since the beginning of the time for committing the greatest sin in form of the treachery against the God itself. You'll notice that you haven't seen any demons with mechanical attachments before the Cyberdemon's introduction in Episode 2's end. They're very well stealing the man-made advancements in technology from the lost Deimos base, and have used it to convert the once condemned arch-angel into a demon spitting machine, cutting open his forehead to forcefully make him summon the armies of hell, keeping him alive on the mechanical enhancements that they've hooked him up on. While Doom guy was in hell during Episode 3, the demons used the technology that they've enhanced the Icon of Sin paired with the teleportation tech from the Deimos base to slingshot an invasion on Earth.

 

Which'll make sense why's he named the "Icon of Sin". He committed treachery against God, he's the embodiment of sin itself.

 

Great video by the way, loved the analysis.

Edited February 9 by Amaruψ

[GermanPeter]

7 minutes ago, Amaruψ said:

I've always considered the Icon of Sin to be a steampunk, or rather more closely a Giger-esque take on Dante's Inferno with a bit of Lovecraft thrown into the mix. In Dante's Inferno, Satan is frozen in time since the beginning of the time for committing the greatest sin in form of the treachery against the God itself. You'll notice that you haven't seen any demons with mechanical attachments before the Cyberdemon's introduction in Episode 2's end. They're very well stealing the man-made advancements in technology from the lost Deimos base, and have used it to convert the once condemned arch-angel into a demon spitting machine, cutting open his forehead to forcefully make him summon the armies of hell, keeping him alive on the mechanical enhancements that they've hooked him up on. While Doom guy was in hell during Episode 3, the demons used the technology that they've enhanced the Icon of Sin paired with the teleportation tech from the Deimos base to slingshot an invasion on Earth.

 

Which'll make sense why's he named the "Icon of Sin". He committed treachery against God, he's the embodiment of sin itself.

 

Great video by the way, loved the analysis.

That's such a rad theory and totally makes sense! If I ever do a video on Doom 1, I'll absolutely include that and credit you for it, if you're fine with it.

The Icon of Sin, Cyberdemon and Spider-Mastermind also really reminds me of the Strogg from Quake 2. That they're combining flesh with machine, artificially keeping corpses alive.

I also always thought that the demons weren't the ones fusing themselves with technology, but that some HUMANS were doing it all along, similar to what Dr. Betruger was doing in Doom 3. I mean, the Cyberdemon and especially the Spider-Mastermind are technology that was tailored just for them. Granted, it's possible the spider momma just plopped herself down on a mech that was created for wars between humans, but I'm not too certain. The Revenants too, far too tall to be normal humans, yet have armor that perfectly fits.

 

In that sense, it'd be even more horrifying to consider the Icon of Sin, as some humans were insane enough to keep the literal devil alive for some twisted reason. As in, they manufactured those machine parts specifically to keep a former angel alive, how disturbing is that? The ultimate betrayal of humanity, damn.

[Amaruψ]

49 minutes ago, GermanPeter said:

I also always thought that the demons weren't the ones fusing themselves with technology, but that some HUMANS were doing it all along, similar to what Dr. Betruger was doing in Doom 3.

 

 

It does tie itself in with the lore, given Harbringer of Doom you fought in Wolfenstein RPG. Just like in Return to Castle Wolfenstein that the Nazis are bringing back Heinrich and his undead army. B.J killed the Harbringer, but in the future, those who either were of the evil minds or perhaps just way too curious tried to bring them back. Deimos I think was already at the gates of hell, and the demons "rewarded" them by merging them into hell.

 

I'm cool if you use the theory in your next video ^^!

Edited February 9 by Amaruψ
Fixed a typo. It's "fought", not "bought" silly Amaruq.

[LuzRoja29]

hola piter yo veo tus videos saludos

[MemeMind]

SO WAIT THAT MEANS THEY DIDNT MISSPELL GAUNTLET??????????

[LadyMistDragon]

I always Nirvana was incredibly out of place in the Hell episode tbh, and I just viewed as the place where the hellish portal happened to be rather than some weird delusion but the way you explain that and the other maps totally makes sense!

 

And your speculation during the Living End sounds not unlike the motivations of Dhaos in Tales of Phantasia and Ganondorf in LoZ: Wind Waker. For some reason, I'd always wanted to think something like there was a faction of demons that didn't agree with what the higher-ups wanted necessarily but there's probably something here too!

 

Someone mentioned the Citadel as possibly a taken-over government building and seeing as Castle Clinton as seen in Deus Ex kind of reminded me of it, maybe that's not surprising!

[GermanPeter]

23 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Someone mentioned the Citadel as possibly a taken-over government building and seeing as Castle Clinton as seen in Deus Ex kind of reminded me of it, maybe that's not surprising!

Apparently the Citadel is based off of a real place, but I don't think it's ever been revealed what it is.

As a European, I'm more used to it being a castle than a government building though :P

[roadworx]

i'm not able to watch the video rn because i'm at work, but i just wanna say that something a lot of people really miss when it comes to making maps in the style of the iwads or even just 90s maps is that a lot of them are kinda like this, where if you use your imagination and try to interpret things, you can start to see that maybe the authors of maps in this sorta style were actually trying to go for something specific instead of just a random, abstract map.

 

granted, a lot of them are just random, abstract maps, but at the same time many of them do have elements that indicate that they were attempting to portray an actual place. maybe they didn't so it very well, but that's beside the point dammit!!!

 

the next time you see a 90s or iwad map that seems to have its themes be all over the place or be an abstract mess, try to use your imagination a little. you might start to realize that there's more to it than just 90s abstraction...or maybe not, who knows.

Edited February 10 by roadworx

[Hebonky]

I think the crusher is where waste tunnels ends up (well duh) But I Imagine it's runoff from the starport, toilets, showers, toxic waste from reactors, etc carried by pipes to the crusher, and the crusher is more of a giant pump that pumps everything into a river """safely.""" the pipes that carry the waste to the crusher burst due to the lack of people being around to maintain them, and flooded Underhalls and the Gantlet, and totally destroyed the gantlet with the highly corrosive waste waters, and some of it even ran into the Focus which is just a small storage area for supplies. Kind of like a broom closet. The sewer section was originally probably only accessible via the blue key door, and the normal path to the other side collapsed.

 

I also feel that the citadel and gotcha! are near the city center and have been reduced to smoldering craters full of lava that demonic fortresses have risen from.

Edited February 10 by Hebonky

["JL" was too short]

First of all, apologies if I take this more seriously than it was intended to be. :P

With that said, I want to say something that's probably both praise and damnation at the same time:

This video made me think: this is totally the sort of headcanon worldbuilding that I and my brother would come up with when we were kids in the mid-90s, with all the time in the world to soak in Doom 2's levels in glorious 320x200 and nothing better to compare it to yet.  Not that we actually had any of the same exact ideas as GermanPeter did here, but it's the same vibe.  In that regard, this is really wholesome and charming.

At the same time, when you're, uh, any sort of adult with options for your entertainment, you probably realize that a lot of the stuff you could get lost in for hours as a child was garbage and you don't need to retroactively make excuses for it.  (I am speaking only for myself here, of my reactions, and don't mean to say that GermanPeter was wrong to make the video—not that my opinion would be worth anything there anyway.)

And with Doom 2 in particular, it's sort of like... okay, you know how when you were a kid, you could use your imagination and the power of make-believe to go on adventures with a few sticks and a discarded cardboard box?  That a great thing!  It's part of the magic of being a kid!  But in the case of Doom 2, looking back, it would be like someone tried to sell you sticks and a cardboard box for the price of a premium toy, and then told you, "Sorry, we don't have enough time to make a good toy, but you can just use your imagination, right?"

So in a way this video, albeit very thoughtfully made, just reinforced for me how much most of Doom 2's maps suck when you don't have the rose-colored glasses of a bored adolescent with no standards.  Thank you for coming to my TED talk, &c.

Edited February 10 by jerrysheppy

[Notsee]

This video gave me so many ideas for modifying the maps I posted them on the discord server is anyone is interested 

[GermanPeter]

7 hours ago, Hebonky said:

I think the crusher is where waste tunnels ends up (well duh) But I Imagine it's runoff from the starport, toilets, showers, toxic waste from reactors, etc carried by pipes to the crusher, and the crusher is more of a giant pump that pumps everything into a river """safely.""" the pipes that carry the waste to the crusher burst due to the lack of people being around to maintain them, and flooded Underhalls and the Gantlet, and totally destroyed the gantlet with the highly corrosive waste waters, and some of it even ran into the Focus which is just a small storage area for supplies. Kind of like a broom closet. The sewer section was originally probably only accessible via the blue key door, and the normal path to the other side collapsed.

That's a really interesting interpretation, and I can see it!

 

6 hours ago, jerrysheppy said:

So in a way this video, albeit very thoughtfully made, just reinforced for me how much most of Doom 2's maps suck when you don't have the rose-colored glasses of a bored adolescent with no standards.  Thank you for coming to my TED talk, &c.

I think Doom 2 is one of those games where you have to put yourself into a certain mindset to enjoy it. Like, on the surface it's not all that great, but if you have the mindset of "This is old, this is jank, other games have done it a million times better, but there's still fun to be had", then you can have a good time. Much like Super Mario 64.

Heck, I made a similar video about Wolfenstein 3D, and that game is arguably MORE janky than Doom 2 and has aged even worse gameplay-wise as well. So I totally get you and I won't argue against the fact these maps are lacking visual-wise, but if you look past that, you can still have fun. I keep mentioning early Lego sets, and I genuinely do prefer them over the modern ones at times for the same reason :D

 

5 hours ago, Notsee said:

This video gave me so many ideas for modifying the maps I posted them on the discord server is anyone is interested 

If anyone ever makes a project like that on here, do invite me, because I'd love to add my own ideas.

[Amaruψ]

3 hours ago, GermanPeter said:

If anyone ever makes a project like that on here, do invite me, because I'd love to add my own ideas.

 

That'll be a fun idea for a community project for a limit removing port.

[GermanPeter]

9 minutes ago, Amaruψ said:

That'll be a fun idea for a community project for a limit removing port.

I'd say at best the UDMF format so you can add 3D floors and water and whatnot.