/vr/ - Retro Games

Underground Maelstrom
underg.zip (160 KB, 1995-09-22) - SiNGE (Nick Bousman) (With help from Fimm)
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=3337

this map is a huge (300+ monsters on UV) and goes on forever. it has some very attractive parts, i particularly liked the outdoor area with its red key tower and huge height difference. but its gameplay is essentially an eternal switch quest full of nasty and unforgiving traps. crushing ceilings, inescapable nukage pits, and memorably a false lift that leaves you trapped in a 64x64 square next to a baron.

at the start it is very short of ammunition and to a lesser extent health, i found myself having to punch several monsters without assistance. on replays you may know where a berserk box is to be found, though, and it is wise to head for it immediately, it makes the map much easier. throughout the map it remains fairly short on resources, right up until the end where it gives you basically every weapon, along with two soulsphere, a blue armour, and two partial invisibilities(!), to fight a single cyberdemon. this item placement seems rather naive to me.

the endless switch quest centres around seven eye switches which all have to be pressed to open the exit. i rather like this kind of thing (see e.g. epic2 map28). it also requires all three keys as part of this, and several more switches to lower silver bars strewn around the map. what i didn't like was getting the blue key, and descent a very long lift to one of the blue doors, only to find there were silver bars i didn't even know about beyond the door, forcing a lot of unnecessary backtracking.

in summary i think this is a large impressive-looking map for those who enjoy long exploratory treks. but it is let down by tedious or awkward gameplay in a lot of places.