/vr/ - Retro Games

The Big Stairs Experiment - http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=3228

this map dated Sept.1995 is by the author's admission "This was how I learned to use DEEP". as such it seems like a map more in common with those produced 18 months prior, when editing with new geometry was in its infancy.

it's just one huge room, with the eponymous staircase up one side, and a waist-high wall along the other, separating you from the exit switch by which you start. there are some imps on pillars, a pain elemental in the lane to the exit, and a mancubus is revealed to guard the switch at the top of the staircase, which lowers the wall blocking the exit lane, and also several of the imp pillars.

it is not irredeemably awful by my standards; i like large open spaces, tall ceilings, huge height variation, and so on. so for me i found it quite charming, but i wouldn't be able to recommend it to the "typical" doom player.

shortcuts: at first it appears the exit switch is just in reach, but i was not able to hit it; however, running up the staircase and then onto the mancubus's ledge allows the possibility of a strafejump over the waist-high wall. a little more thought showed the switch at the top of the stairs was pressable from below, and the staircase could be avoided entirely.