Doom: Ultimate Doom In Name Only - E2M7: Spawning Vats (UV Max)

Описание: Ultimate Doom In Name Only (or UDINO) is a 36-map Ultimate Doom WAD released in 2023 and led by cannonball and the inimitable dobu gabu maru. As alluded to in the title, UDINO takes the original level titles of UD’s episodes and creates entirely new levels around them. The idea is as vague as it is freeing, allowing for the mind to run wild with interpretations of id’s level titles, and my god did the UDINO team’s collective mind run wild.

With goals such as being equal parts fun, challenging, and creative, the end product was bound to be an eclectic and inventive powerhouse. If I were to showcase ANY Ultimate Doom WAD on the channel, this one would have always been my first pick. Its sky-high ambition, clever level designs, and stunning, fully-realized vision made it easily one of the most distinctive and engaging WADs I’ve played in a long time. As to not spoil the experience right away, I’ll just leave it at that.

UDINO PLAYLIST:    • Ultimate Doom In Name Only  
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IWAD: Doom
Port: DSDA-doom 29.3
Compatibility: limit-removing (comp level 3)
Mapper(s): General Rainbow Bacon & dobu gabu maru
MIDIs: Jimmy - Haunting Echoes
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UDINO: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/lev...

DSDA-doom: https://github.com/kraflab/dsda-doom

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The first thing I noticed about the map was its two collaborators. Of course, DGM, of course, has a part to play, but I assume most of it is designed by General Rainbow Bacon. I only really know this mapper from their Slaughterfest maps, so this was a bit of a different experience to say the least.

I said that this map does a lot of things not just in the encounters it presents but also in the visuals. Visually, it’s a mash-up of various texture themes, environments, and layouts. It’s like GRB and DGM took leftover scraps from various maps and smushed them together to create a new layout. It works wonderfully, as all the wildly different locales work well together, and it always creates an interesting scene no matter where you are.

Another thing I found interesting was how GRB and DGM implemented the map’s name into the design. All throughout the map you see these silver vats filled with nukage. Sometimes the enemies are contained within them, and in others they sit on top of the nukage. I think this is probably GRB and DGM’s idea for the name, and it works well. This idea is baked into the combat in a few places, most notably the yellow key fight possibly, but that’s for later. You also have to dip into one to grab the blue key, and another one later on drains completely, revealing a pack of Lost Souls within. I appreciate the different kinds of “spawning vats” you encounter in the map, and again, it just creates a lot of variety.

Combat wise the map does a great job of utilizing incidental groups of enemies and smaller traps to keep your attention. I really like the beginning area for this reason. You’re met with a gang of hitscanners all staring at you, and you have to find a good weapon to deal with them all. It prepares you well for the main area, which has a survival of the fittest vibe to it. The whole layout is open to you from the moment you teleport in, and chaos can ensue fairly quickly, so you have to be quick in taking out all the groups of enemies you see. I also like the heavy usage of Barons, which is a little surprising to me. They make you rethink your choice of entering a certain area, and they also make you reroute to another weapon or place to take cover in. There are also some rather heated moments too, like when the floor collapses, revealing the cave network that houses the yellow key. I always end up saving the secret invulnerability (in another spawning vat!) for this fight, but from what I can tell, not having it would lead to some issues.

The big reason why this map has so many enemies is the fight for the yellow key that I chose for the thumbnail shot. It’s a cool and memorable set piece visually, but also contains a fun fight. It’s more of an endurance fight, more than it is about killing everything right then and there. I didn’t really internalize these things on my replay and ended up staying too long and taking too much damage, which ultimately killed me. I think this is a great fight to sort of act as a skill check within the map. It definitely challenges your ability to balance different threats from different angles, as well as your ability to be wary of all the different projectiles. It’s really easy in fights like these to build up a series of small hits from Imps, or maybe even a Baron fireball or scratch.

Overall, I think I just like how many ideas are presented here, as well as the execution of said idea. There’s always something interesting happening at all times, with combat coming from multiple directions, and the energetic Jimmy MIDI just adds to the fun of it all.

#doom