The DWmegawad Club plays: Eternal Doom

[Salt-Man Z]

Okay, let's do this. This another WAD I consider a "classic" simply because it was one of the first dozen so I played when I got back into Doom in college. I think on my first run (in Doomsday) I made it to MAP06; not sure if I beat that. A few years ago (over the span of a year or two, probably) I played the whole thing through in GZDoom.

I'll be trying this on UV for the first time. GZDoom/continuous/keyboard-only as usual.

MAP01: Genesis
12:24 | 100% everything

Big and sprawling, and way more expansive than it needs to be. Looks nice, though. I lucked into the SSG right away, which was good. This was also the first time I managed to find the radsuit before first cleaning out the radioactive areas. I did manage to die twice: the first time, I made to the cargo bay before taking damage, then got careless and nailed in the back by a caco. The second time, I decided to play hero in the prison area: I opened all the cells up and ran for the invul, then managed to get myself cornered and ran out of shells before the invul wore off. Hadn't saved either time, so I got really familiar with the map. A decent map all around. I managed to max my kills/items/secrets, probably the last time that's going to happen.


MAP02: Tower of Hell
29:06 | 96% Kills | 100% Items | 85% Secrets

I do enjoy this map, even though the texturing is all over the place. The part where you have to shoot a switch through the window to access the yellow (?) key is what always tripped me up before.


MAP03: Inter-Base
49:50 | 97% Kills | 100% Items | 90% Secrets

Pretty ugly, but fun. That revenant behind the exit door was a good scare. I'm glad to see I'm not the only who found the red skull section buggy: HOMs everywhere there was a height difference, and the revenant platform never lowered like it was supposed to. I remember that happening the last time I played it, as well. I liked all the reveals where hitting a switch would suddenly reveal windows into another area; very cool. I also like how it ends with the beginning of the next map, though it was a little half-baked (like only being able to see the front of the large crate, and not the side.)

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP04: Nucleus
1:13:28 | 100% Kills | 80% Items | 75% Secrets

Man, I want to love this level. I do. First off, it's gorgeous: those crate textures are fantastic, and the crate maze is done well, with not everything stacked quite square. The architecture is memorable, even the combat isn't bad. But man, is progression ever obscure! A whole lot of "this switch opens some stuff up somewhere" going on. And the point where you had to shoot a subtly-marked wall to reveal a swithc? C'mon. To be fair, I spent forever trying to figure out how to get the yellow key, and then when I did solve it out, I had to laugh out loud at the simplicity and deviousness of it. A tip o' my proverbial hat to Sverre.

[Paul977]

Mmm I'm tempted to play, one of my favourite mapper here: Sverre André Kvernmo

[T-Rex]

What's happening, everyone? Time for me to continue on with the playthrough, and this is among one of my most favourite maps in Eternal Doom.

Map04: Nucleus (Sverre Kvernmo)
104% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 24:32

The first of Soundblock's Eternal Doom maps, and boy does it really deliver. It's a large storage facility with crate mazes akin to maps like Ultimate Doom E2M2: Containment Area and TNT Evilution Map11: Storage Facility, but this one does more interesting stuff with the crates to add more realism just as slightly tilted ones and some with holes allowing you to take a peak inside, thanks to the new textures. There's a bit of cryptic parts in the map as well, though I kinda figured out that the marked wall at the flashing sector in the northwest section must be hiding something and when I shoot at it, it reveals the switch that will allow you to reach the northeast section holding the red key. There's also a console not far that you can press on which will open a crate to a secret area. Once you obtain the red key, you can access the door into the sewers which circle around the facility. You have to take a lift down south and enter the tunnel with the brown sewage as it leads the way to the blue key, and of course, obtaining it triggers a trap which will hold you in for a short period of time before you can hit the switch that opens the cage. You can then take the lift behind the blue door to the northern area, where you must first hit a switch that activates the stairs and locate the yellow key that is inside the circular slime tank full of arachnotrons. Finally, you have to face a couple of pain elementals when you take the east route down to the southern sewers where you must be careful of must watch out for some arachnotrons that rise out of the slime, and an arch-vile. Just don't forget to take the lift nearby the entrance to the exit area to pick up some goodies and radiation suits which you'll need to avoid taking damage from the slime while having the fight against hell knights, a circle of chaingunners and a spider mastermind on the exit teleporter. Overall, this is a massive and complex map, and you can get easily get lost in the storage facility section, but thankfully everything falls into place when you enter the sewers. The secrets aren't even hard to find. In fact, one of them is en route where you have to go to and one can be found by hitting a switch in the place where you get the yellow key, which conveniently takes you to the starting area and the yellow key door. Really awesome and enjoyable map, and it has a lot of challenge both in design and monster placement.

Phew! That map was long, but I liked it a lot. Soundblock is really good at that, and given these were vanilla compatible, he could easily do something of that calibre now, and since Ragnor's a fan of these kind of maps, you know "Drake O'Brien" sized, maybe some offerings for TNT: Revilution or even TNT: Convilution would suffice. Gonna leave it at here for now and continue tomorrow. Take care and have fun, everyone.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP05 Time Gate

One of the shorter maps, I can appreciate it well enough. it has neat design and plays alright, just a few teleport ambushes, where you'll see shotgun guys being major pains in the butt here. the SSG here can be missable, that's why Eternal players need to look in every corner of the game for things. Most of this map has backtracking, once you get the red and blue keys, find your way back to that one area with the seal consoles. Kinda ruins things a bit here, there's not much apart from the worst ambush in this map after the blue key. as for that seizure-inducing stairway, I found the light visor secret, did everything quickly, and didn't even experience the light effects. blue key room is quite interesting, and the exit room offers a few choices, one where the demons have taken over (yet there are only three), and the other way back when Earth is forming. Two other ones, like the south portal which I chose, are the exits to MAP06.

Not possible to get 100% kills on this level and leave. You can kill those enemies in the future ending (two cybers and I think an imp, if you're good), but there's no exit so no. 100% items and secrets are possible, one of those is a five-minute door which is so ever rarely used.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP04: Nucleus

Larger, more logically structured, and with a stronger sense of place than either of the preceding maps; it's a joy to unlock a puzzle like this, not a chore. Thematically it's a hybrid of E2M2 Containment Area and MAP05 The Waste Tunnels, with a glistening sewer tunnel encircling a cargo handling facility divided into multiple bays. There are some setpiece ambushes tucked away at the ends of the various branches the player has to follow in order to reach their goal, but most of the combat occurs in a steady stream, with positioning used to great effect to amplify the threat of even low-tier monsters. The comprehensible structure serves to make the search for keys and switches less about searching every nook and cranny, and more about taking logical steps toward a discernable goal.

MAP05: Time Gate

Another thematically strong offering, set in a base conducting time-travel experiments. The layout is in some ways the reverse of the prior level; instead of starting at the core of the level and gradually gaining access to the outside, the player here is put in the more traditional role of storming a fortified structure from the outside, working inwards. The early diagram of the four-sided time gate and the way it's configured as a series of false and true exits is genuinely clever - one so far into the past that the Earth is a fatally hot ball of magma and fire, one a short distance into the future where cyberdemon lords rule over a devastated cityspace, and two leading back to the middle ages; shades of the transition from Evil Dead II into Army of Darkness there (the Wiki's description of how this came about and what was originally planned as a third false exit is intriguing).

[plums]

So we go back in time in MAP02 for a very Heretic/Hexen inspired map, only to return to the future in order to find a time gate to go back in time? Not entirely sure how that works out, but OK. Anyhow I liked MAP02 a lot, 3 wasn't bad but I'm more interested in the medieval texturing than the shiny tiles of the future.

Soundblock's maps were quite good though, though I have to agree with the opinion that MAP04 was extremely admirable but not always fun. I did love the use of the slime as pressure in the end though, really added tension as I found myself starting to run low on supplies. I got most of the secrets too, without them I could see it being a serious ordeal just to stay alive.

MAP05 gets a bit easier and simpler, with one of those cool all-blue sections that Sverre seems to love. The gameplay of this one was pretty straightforward but had a few traps to keep you on your toes, and visually/thematically it was great. The ending choose-your-timezone teleporter was cool even though like Ribbiks I just jumped in at first and found myself being roasted in the forming of the earth, hah.

[antares031]

MAP05 - Time Gate
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 97/90/50

Another interesting level by Soundblock. If you're playing this level, make sure to read every computer signs carefully. They'll help you to proceed the level, find secret areas, and even choose the proper ending. That's right, this level has multiple endings, which will prevent you to get 100% kills. Anyway, the opening combat is just moderate; just run and shoot the monsters in the field and on the catwalk. The best part of this level is the timegate access card room. It's the combination of intriguing environment and combat. And yes, I'm a huge fan of blue-colored textures. The blinking lights may disturb some players, but don't worry. There's a secret to solve your issue, so make sure to keep explore the level. Overall, this level is really enjoyable thanks to its well-designed layout and environment, monster & item placements.

[Ancalagon]

fdas

It's time to finally give this wad a go, I tried it some years ago and quit at map04, but I hope I don't get completely lost in these maps this time.

Map01: The wad shows it's nice face, apparently there is a story, you shoot stuff and don't need to hug every wall in the map looking for switches. Fun map until it gives the ssg and you just have to kill cacos and PEs one by one.

Map02: I remember skipping this wad after not being able to find the mandatory camouflaged switch, but this time I knew about it and could continue the map!

Map03: I actually like some parts of this map (yellow key room and the last 3 skullkeys section), the rest of the map is mostly hallways. Thankfully I watched andy's TAS during last year so I had a clue about how to get the red key.

Map04: Boxes! You start the map in a room with lots of boxes, then you have to move to a room with lots of boxes until a fight with 2 cacos and a PE.I was pretty surprised that the shootable wall is mandatory and thankfully I knew about it beforehand too. Then you go back to the start and move to another room with lots of boxes, fight a baron and enter a 4th room with lots of boxes that has a red key. I didn't expect such old wad to have a deadly trap in (at least if you are rushing, no problem if you take it slow) and died to viles once. I don't remember much of the rest of the map, I think it's more boxes.

Map05: Good map until the epileptic blue stairs, and having to wait for a door to close isn't exactly a fun mechanic. The final room where you can exit or teleport into your death is total nonsense.

[Naan]

About MAP05:

- Is there a way to grab the rocket boxes located in the outer balconies? Is the BFG9000 in the center of the exit portals is reachable?
- How's the megasphere secret working exactly? I never found how.
- If you exit the RK room with the exit portal - in an attempt to avoid AVs and luring them outside - and the door closes, there is no way to open it back. Or is it due to GZDoom settings?

[Magnusblitz]

MAP05: Time Gate
96% kills, 1/4 secrets

An interesting map, though more because of the design and gimmicks than the combat, which is pretty much just perfunctory ledge-clearing and dealing with some small warp-ins. There's a LOT of switch hitting in this one, with quite a few that feel unnecessary, but nothing too confusing as long as you pay attention... I probably wasted the most time trying to find the yellow key (took me awhile to find the skull on the outside of the middle structure, and by then I had already cleared out the area where it was, not realizing there was a closet to open). Like last map's airlocks, the gates past the blinking blue area are overly complex... there's a bit of an explanation with the "wait 4 seconds" but it doesn't quite make sense (since you actually need to hit the switches on the back, not wait 4 seconds.... but doing the later forces you to hit the former since the door lowers by that time). I'll also never be a fan of being forced to sit around and wait 5 minutes for a secret either, even if there is a megasphere inside. :) I like the cheeky ending with the time portals to either a lava pit 1 billion years ago*, or five years into a future ruled by Cyberdemons... or the real exit to 1250 years ago.

* It's worth nothing that Wikipedia tells me that 1 billion years ago the Earth wasn't still one big forming lava ball, we had continents and sexually producing micro-organisms and other fun stuff

[vdgg]

Naan said:

About MAP05:

- Is there a way to grab the rocket boxes located in the outer balconies?

I don't think there is if we discard double arch-vile jumps and the like.

Is the BFG9000 in the center of the exit portals is reachable?

It is multiplayer-only, isn't it?

- How's the megasphere secret working exactly? I never found how.

It opens only once 5 minutes after you start the level, then it closes

- If you exit the RK room with the exit portal - in an attempt to avoid AVs and luring them outside - and the door closes, there is no way to open it back. Or is it due to GZDoom settings?

There are only three arch-viles on this level, yet still I can't figure out which area you're talking about...

[Naan]

I'm talking about the red key door. If you open it, run around to spawn stuff then exit back to the corridor, then the door closes, and I can't get back inside.

[vdgg]

Oh, I get it. This door should re-open after 30 seconds.

[Veinen]

What's up.

Map01: Genesis

It's an alright starter I guess. Decent looks and pretty standard map01-quality combat. The early SSG makes quick work of every encounter here so don't forget to grab it. Some minor "puzzles" required for progression but nothing too obscure for now. Serves for kind of a soft landing for the rest of the wad I guess and perhaps a chance for the player to learn that paying attention (and occasionally humping random walls) leads to good things. In the Caco prison block I prefer to unleash everything and pick up the secret Invuln before I start shooting. There's no real advantage to this but at least you don't have to "duel" with these guys one by one. This map, and pretty much the entire wad for that matter, has a nice atmospheric soundtrack which I really like.

Map02: Tower of Hell

Right off the bat the visual theme has changed completely and now we're in some medieval castle/tech base -hybrid, which doesn't really make much sense but you know, why not. It's a long-ish map for being so early in the set but a linear one as well. And already we get switches and "switches" that are much harder to figure out. I too remember the X-switch being nigh impossible to find the first time around. The destructible cracked walls were introduced already in map01 so those never gave me any trouble. The SSG is a little further down the path this time so you don't become an overpowered juggernaut straight away. The Cacos in the main cavern can be ignored for the most part though so there's hardly any need for the SSG early.

Map03: Inter-Base

An even larger map this. Quite likable though and progression is mostly just about finding one key that leads to the next key and so on and everything can be figured out relatively easily. The acid & pillars room is pretty dangerous as you can get literally stuck in the acid a couple of different ways if my memory serves me right. You'll melt in the acid in no time though so it's not permanent, only a little annoying. I think you have to play with -cl2 specifically in order to get the red skull section to not be completely fucked up, or at least that's my experience. Combat here has more substance than in the previous two maps and difficulty is a bit higher too. I was just thinking how such a simple fight like the one you have against just two Revs in the acid & pillars room is made interesting by the uneven ground and the acid. That's pretty good design. There's also the Cyberdemon at the end. A fairly standard fight and most players will try to bait the Barons to weaken the big guy I reckon. Health item placement seemed kind of odd as it seemed like health was pretty sparse at the beginning stages of the map but after picking up the BK you can grab a secret Mega nearby and then another one pretty much right after without having lost any health in between.

Map04: Nucleus

And the maps just keep getting bigger... The level is extremely large and complex but I found it very enjoyable. Took me twenty minutes to finish even though I'm familiar with the progression. There's a bunch of stuff that is infuriating when you're playing blind or your memories are fuzzy but that's just how Eternal Doom is. I think the hidden switch in the large RL room is really clever though, the hint that there is a switch is subtle but it is there. It's a very good-looking map overall i think and has a consistent and even a realistic theme to an extent. Or rather two themes since it has the warehouse part and the sewer part, but both environments are believable and fit together. If you don't like crates then you probably won't like this map much either though... The damaging nukage down in the sewers is fine gameplay design as once again perfectly simple fights against a couple of Mancs of Arachs are made that much more interesting by it. The nukage doesn't restrict movement and probably doesn't kill you either but you're not really comfortable in just standing in the nuke taking damage for no reason when you can try to dodge the Arach plasma on the edges. Similar difficulty than in the previous map, maybe a tad higher due to a few nastier traps. The AV near the end is sneaky dangerous as he can cause big problems if he starts rezzing the Arachs. A well-designed Mastermind fight to end the map, a rare sight indeed.

[gaspe]

MAP06 - Pathos

Here it starts our journey into the dark ages. It features a bit some long hallways conneting the various areas like MAP01, as the author is the same; but this map is better as there are more interesting things. Overall the map looks like a complex of monastery-like buildings. I really liked the parts where you go outside giving a sort of a mountain area vibe, and the crypt. Even if it's monochromatic it looks really cool with those textures and decorations. There's nothing really remarkable on the gameplay but it's a cool opener to set the medieval mood.

[Naan]

Some gameplay notes about earlier maps, because I just can't miss playing Eternal Doom when DWMC is playing it. I expect it to be chaotic, after all I started playing with MAP05.

MAP01 - “Genesis” by Alex Mayberry

The early SSG could've been marked as secret but there is no need for it anyway until later when you encounter the first cacos. I swear there was a chaingun somewhere in this map but I can't remember where.


MAP02 - “Tower of Hell” by Adam Landefeld

I should've played Eternal Doom continuously back in the early 2000's given I didn't remember that shooting down a dozen cacodemons with a shotgun could be troublesome but can be skipped until you grab the SSG later on. I liked the fake switch trap before the small outdoor section with the teleporter statue, but there is no way to awaken nor shoot down the cacos inside the broken glass outside square cages, but I guess it's some GZDoom compat thing messed up. And that revenant fight with berserk pack and invul sphere provided was fun!

[dobu gabu maru]

Cool that so many people are hopping onboard for this. Also, I didn't realize that Soundblock was Kvernmo—I'm glad he stuck around, since he's an exceptional mapper. Speaking of...

MAP05: While I though Kvernmo went a little too overboard with the last map, this one does mostly well. It has some good action that spices up the map in all the right spots, including an fiery AV fight in the BK room. The epileptic insanity of that area was cleverly done, and I especially liked being given an objective for this map (I thought it was cute how two of the exit portals lead to inescapable death). The architecture is superb here and the map didn’t linger on too long, ending right when I was tired of the locale. Not only is this my favorite map thus far, but Kvernmo is proving himself to be the most talented member from TeamTNT—I’m hoping he’ll keep up this level of quality throughout the rest of the megawad.

[SoundofDoomDoors]

MAP05: I played from a pistol start to add a music mod in. Pretty good. I didn't find the SSG until I had all three keys. Good thing I got it. The end would've been maddening without it. I died in the blue key area to a single archvile without it, so fighting two wouldn't have been fun if I hadn't noticed it stashed in a corner. About the end, I think when I first played this map I stumbled into the future. Thinking back on it, the design reminds me of Hellbound MAP30. I picked the right gate this time though.

97% Kills
25% Secrets
Clear time: about 17:00. I tracked my death count for Sunlust. Clear time will be funnier for this wad, so I replaced it. How long before I hit the 90 minute mark? MAP12 might get me there if I don't quit after the first 2 minutes.

[Ribbiks]

beep boop, m06:,

fda. blahh cooridor-shooty and no real puzzles or quirkiness really this time around. Felt like a slog (guessing there might be heavier weaponry in secrets or something?). YK mini arena was cool, final cyb was quite anti-climactic, map overall forgettable.

[Ancalagon]

Fda Map06: Hallways, stuff to shoot, woo 2 invuls and a shiton of rockets for a single cyber? guess 20 years ago a cybie was considered hard, the red door room rewards the player that hug all walls opening the way to progress!

[Salt-Man Z]

MAP05: Time Gate
24:25 | 97% Kills | 81% Items | 25% Secrets

Hey, wow, this one's a lot better than I remembered. First off, I remember the layout being super confusing, but I had no problems navigating this time. Clever layout too, full of nice and punchy combat. I actually had a fairly rough time to start, since I came in with only 9% health from the previous map. Took a couple legs of the outer walk before finding a medikit, and then of course the berserk came shortly thereafter. Goodness, I forgot just how gorgeous the blue area is. (And is it just me, or does Kvernmo use crushers to provide ambient sound? I noticed them in the yellow key reactor last map, too. Interesting choice, that.) Also, he pulls his little switch-on-the-back-of-the-door trick again, though this time the "wait 4 seconds" warning is apparently a clue, I guess. Still not entirely sure what I did in that blue area (getting out took a few tries) but it was fun. This might be the first time I got the "bad" ending, which looked super-cool. I assume that way is unbeatable? (I saved before I jumped into the portal, so just reloaded and took the "good" exit.) Good map.


MAP06: Pathos
20:05 | 98% Kills | 94% Items | 66% Secrets

This is my favorite map of the WAD, for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. It's the first level to go all-out with the Hexen theme, and that blew me away the first time I played it—seared it into my memory, and it's therefore the defining map of the set for me. (Also my first exposure to deep water, instant lifts, fake swinging doors, et al.) And hey! it helps that it's a good map, too. Great atmosphere, though fairly linear, with a couple of mild puzzles, and a cool fight at the end. Not terribly difficult, but I'm a fan of the more laid-back stuff anyway.

[baja blast rd.]

Ribbiks said:

beep boop, m06:,

fda. blahh cooridor-shooty and no real puzzles or quirkiness really this time around. Felt like a slog (guessing there might be heavier weaponry in secrets or something?). YK mini arena was cool, final cyb was quite anti-climactic, map overall forgettable.

Ancalagon said:

Fda Map06: Hallways, stuff to shoot, woo 2 invuls and a shiton of rockets for a single cyber? guess 20 years ago a cybie was considered hard, the red door room rewards the player that hug all walls opening the way to progress!

The biggest threat in map06's cyb fight is the partial invisibility lurking in the middle of the room.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 06 -- Pathos - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Whether or not the interpretation that map 02 takes place in some ancient ruins during "present day" is correct, there's no doubt that we've well and truly entered medieval times now, the setting which will define the majority of the WAD from this point, and the one for which the mapset is primarily remembered. Whatever the deal with map 02 is, Mayberry's "Pathos" gives the impression of being actively designed as the proper intro to the medieval setting, in that it is like nothing so much as one of those county fair haunted house thrill attractions, or a wax museum gallery, or something of that nature--it is simply one long, totally linear walking tour, rife with picturesque props and wall decorations and other stage-dressing but with essentially no exploratory agency whatsoever afforded the player. From a concourse standpoint it's a very neat and tidy presentation--near perfect texture alignment, logical material and thematic transitions, nice (if simple) directional lighting, and so forth--but these superficial niceties don't really disguise that the level really is just one long corridor, which detracts somewhat from the sense of immersion and from the satisfaction of making progress in the level.

That being said, level progression is not truly 100% straightforward; the path is gated by key-locked doors (and one fountain lip that's initially about an inch too high for Doomguy to high-step over, delicate flower that he is) at a few points, and in all cases the requisite key is concealed somewhere earlier along the route. While the YK is found along an obvious side path opened by a switch where the main path dead-ends in the yellow door, in the case of both the BK and the RK, I believe their hidey-holes could fairly be categorized as 'mandatory secrets', which of course is a design decision that some sensibilities will find appalling as a matter of principle. What is needed to acquire them is not particularly arcane in either case, and both secret entrances are concretely telegraphed, but players who never developed the habit of looking for hidden things in the environment may still have trouble as a result (the actual secrets are a little more wily in comparison, two of them relying on purely inferential clues eliding from monster behavior). I don't object to this kind of thing on principle, myself, but I must say that having mandatory side-corridors off of the main corridor is a pretty poor substitute for more interesting level progression, hidden or no.

Combat is almost entirely frontal/direct; I believe the only proper 'traps' on offer are the imps in cubbies behind false walls on the way back out of the crypt, the 'shoot the switch to escape the cage' trope down the same leg, and of course the coffinlid collapsing and dropping you right into a revenant's musty embrace on the way in (which I do like, I must admit). A modern player assuming that the level of opposition offered will be pissweak given the WAD's age may find him/herself caught off guard by some of the point-blank arch-vile reveals and other thrusts, but for the most part this shouldn't be anything that 90% of us can't handle with ease, especially with the benefit of some of the secrets, which are again quite powerful. The final cyberdemon fight is of the sort that hasn't aged very well--these days many will instinctively bypass him to reach the V-spheres (or, hell, the exit switch) after initially being bucked back out to the courtyard by that sneaky single-sided teleport line, but I reckon back in the day that kind of aggression was not quite so par for the course during casual/leisure play as it is now, making the cyb more of a credible obstacle (if still not a particularly engaging fight).

[punnyone]

Map 5 - Time Gate - 97% Kills, 100% Secrets.

We've stepped out of the sewers and stepped foot into the realm of a dark, mostly blue and grey fortress. Locked up tight behind a couple of cleverly "Sealed" doors is the titular Time Gate.

Sverre nails the aesthetics with fantastic lighting, great architecture, and clever computer monitor puzzles, (That 5 minute secret in particular with its hilarious "Frag You Too!!!" if you shoot it out of frustration). I will say though that the infamous "Seizure Hallway" always gave me a bit of a headache. Better in theory than practice i suppose.

Also of note is the very menacing music, which adds a layer of suspense as you fight through the darkened halls and deal with quite a few frustrating hitscanner encounters. Finding the secrets is a necessity for health and ammo reasons.

The actual time gate itself looks spectacular, and I still remember back in the day selecting the wrong gate, (In this case the +5 year one), and wondering why there was no way out of this ruined city. The other failed time gate entry, to a billion years prior where our hero gets burned alive in the fires of early earth, is also quite clever.

Overall, Time Gate is one of the most notable maps of the project, it is is an excellent and stylish setup to the journey into the past that this megawad is best known for.

[NuMetalManiak]

MAP06 Pathos

bleh don't like this one. Very linear with lots of imp/hitscanner combo and it's rather boring. The author is the same as MAP01, so hallways all the way through. there's a few spices of progression, like the fountain, the sewer region, and the part where you're at the red door and need to open one of those garnered walls. You can hit the skull switches at the sewer section from the water though. The yellow key segment is interesting as well, too bad the end cyberdemon can be cheesed easily with two invulnerabilities. A bit tricky to get 100% items due to the health bonuses in the mancubus room being VERY WELL camouflaged in the much bluer water. Also that one teleport closet where the imps teleport into the yellow key room is very poorly constructed, so it's easy to skip a kill, particularly on UV.

[T-Rex]

Hello again, DWMC players, I'm back again to play more Eternal Doom. Let's do this.

Map05: Time Gate (Sverre Kvernmo)
97% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 11:00

Soundblock's second offering is a short map which takes us in a rather strange facility, and we start in what seems to be the canals of the facility. There's a monitor telling us something will happen after 5 minutes, so your best bet is to take count of how long you're playing the level in advance as you fight your way around so that you can rush back to the starting area before the 5 minutes are up as the door next to it will open temporarily, revealing a secret area holding a megasphere. Once you take the lift at the end, you're finally on land and you can enter the facility. Before you can enter into the chambers, you need to find the yellow key, which is revealed once you hit a switch outside, then enter the yellow door to pick up the red key, and then hit the red switch in the area where you took the lift to unlock the door into the flashing blue room. You can hump the northwest wall in the room where you picked up the yellow key to reveal a secret holding a demon and light amplification visors so you won't have to deal with the wildly flickering lights as you go down either side. The room where you obtain the blue key isn't hard to figure out once you know you can press behind the bars which open up the central square. You'll have to return to the area where you hit the red switch to unlock the door with the blue switch which leads to the portals, and then hit a set of switches around the room to deactivate the forcefields. I like this scenario. If you take note of the panel in the blue and red switch area, they indicate the destinations the portal will take you depending which side you took in accordance to the automap; the top will transport you to when the Earth was forming and the right will take you to a future in ruins and overrun with demons (bad endings). The bottom and left sides will end the level, so take those. This is the last futuristic map, but not the last Soundblock map. Very nicely done map.

Map06: Pathos (Alex Mayberry)
101% kills, 100% items, 100% secrets
Time: 11:31

We are now in the Middle Ages, and this will be a theme we'll be seeing throughout the rest of Eternal Doom. This is also Alex Mayberry's final contribution to the megawad, and it's a darn good one. It's a pretty straightforward and linear level, though finding hidden walls or openings are a must in order to get past the level, especially when finding the blue and red keys. Luckily, it's nothing so terribly cryptic, and it's one of the shortest maps in the set. A fun romp through the castle hallways. Be sure to hear for a floor lowering and retrace your steps to find a revealed switch which slightly lowers the way to the aquaduct. It's mostly switch pressing that opens the way forward, and then you have to hit the switch that opens a door to the yellow key, which teleports you to another area, including unleashing an imp ambush, which can be a bit annoying due to how the way they get teleported which makes it hard for all of them to be in the playing area in a short time. The cyberdemon fight is so easy thanks to the fact that you have two invulnerabilities at the exit switch. Not a bad map and it does it job well with the medieval theme.

Alrighty, time to leave it from here, and continue on tomorrow. So see you all at Map07: The Abbey.

[TheOrganGrinder]

MAP06: Pathos

Our journey back to the middle ages begins with this pleasant little crawl through various church, catacomb, and castle settings, borrowing art assets from Hexen and evoking a certain sense of Ultima Underworld. It's a fairly linear affair; at certain points in your progression, the path forks, one branch of which is blocked by a key-locked door, but you're not really put in a position of having to double back beyond the most recent fork once the appropriate key is acquired. Since the WAD has already established that keen observational skills and nonstandard methods of progression are to be expected, their appearance here doesn't feel cheap or inappropriate. Overall I'd say this level makes for an enjoyable introduction to the new environment into which gameplay has shifted after the techbase warm-up.

[antares031]

MAP06 - Pathos
ZDoom, UV - Pistol Start, KIS(%): 94/85/66

This level introduces the glorious theme of Eternal Doom; medival theme. But unfortunately, the gameplay is not that good in my honest opinion. I understand that it's the first level with this theme, so it doesn't need to be complex. But I think it could be better if the author drew this level with horseshoe design, just like E1M1 of original Doom. Which means the level is ultra-linear, and you'll just shoot down the monsters in the giant corridor. Occasionally you'll face some tricky moments, but the overall combat is just stereotypical. Still, it's cool to watch some vanilla mapping trick, such as a sewer tunnel with deep-water, doors moving horizontally, etc.

[Urthar]

MAP06 - Pathos

A surprisingly good looking map, that wouldn't have felt out of place in an 1990's Heretic/Hexen expansion. I'm still not keen on the use of secrets as progression, but the map is small enough that the hidden bits are reasonably easy to find, and you do get a small 'hit' of achievement in finding of each them.

It's an easy map on HMP, and quite linear, but essentially it works. I enjoyed it.