Erick

One month build time, now that's funny I think. Not exactly the worst thing to ever play or relevant today even, but releasing extremely low quality stuff, even as a bad joke, is just shameful.

Before Plutonia's Go 2 It, there was Dario Casali's take on expanding Doom 2's MAP01 into a difficult and action packed level. Punisher can be seen as sort of a prototype for Go 2 It in that it was released a year before Final Doom and the map is rough around the edges to play. There are far more many monsters in Punisher than there are in Go 2 It, starting off with about 600 enemies, which is three times more than Go 2 It's initial start of about 200 enemies. It sounds like Punisher is more difficult than Go 2 It for having more enemies and a rougher layout, right? Well, actually no, Punisher is easier than Go 2 It though at the same time, Punisher has its difficulty issues that can make it annoying to play. In Punisher, a variety of enemies are placed together far more frequently, meaning infighting happens immediately in the areas they are in. There are some rooms where only a single enemy type is in to prevent easy infighting, but even still, you can take advantage of monster infighting far more than you would in Go 2 It. Another thing, you don't always get up close to tough monsters like the Cyberdemon so you can pretty much skip them at times, which is unlike Go 2 It as that map has you getting up close to them or at times killing them to progress. Despite Punisher encouraging something of a aggressive and fast playstyle like you Go 2 It and other Plutonia maps encourage, it doesn't exactly feel like you can do it as freely here. There's a ton of open space so trying to draw attention of monsters to cause some infighting yourself can be annoying to do, an Arch-Vile can hit you out in the open and Pain Elementals can be very problematic, so you might find yourself peeking in and out of cover often instead of blasting monsters away with rockets and a BFG. That's not to say you can't blast through the level if you played it multiple times much like Go 2 It, but even so, the pacing and fights here feel a bit messy. Punisher is not bad to play and I found it fun to play despite its gameplay problems. I found it interesting to compare this map with Go 2 It to see the differences and how much more refined an expanded Doom 2 MAP01 turned out in the end. If you're into maps with tons of monsters to kill and don't mind some odd pacing, Punisher is good to play, though it definitely shows its age.

There's definitely some ideas put into use here, but the result is rather sloppy. You start off with three teleporters in the first room, so going in blindly, I couldn't tell if I had to take one teleporter first or if I can complete the level in (almost) any order. To sum it up, you have to go through these teleporters in a linear order to complete the level, otherwise you'll be greeted by locked doors that serve as a reminder that you're going the wrong way. The level itself isn't overly confusing, but coming in the gauntlet room unprepared left a sour impression. The majority of rooms are spacious and not very pleasing to look at. You'll see big open rooms with dirt and marble textures placed throughout, and aside of the pentagram room with Spectres and an Arch-Vile at the center, the map just boils down to dull rooms and hallways you can run past through. With good use of powerups, you can get by most threats without an issue. There's some bits of carnage, but the overall gameplay feels plain. A little heads up, but when playing on a ZDoom port, the teleporters at the start of each area will teleport you to a random destination. That is because their lines are zero-tagged teleport actions, meaning they will teleport you to any destination placed on a zero-tagged sector. This can make the level more confusing to complete as you may end up in an area you aren't supposed to be at. When playing in vanilla, these teleporters will always teleport you to the start of the level.