Fairy Tale Spotlight: Master Levels for Doom II [Video Game Review]

"Master Levels for Doom II" is a series of 21 Doom II maps released commercially by id Software in 1995. It was originally released without any sort of map order. People had to load them up manually which kind of sucked. Through the recent Nightdive remaster of Doom and Doom II, we can actually play this game as its own episode.

The first half of this episode is very good. The level designs were very solid. The enemies come at you fiercely and in great numbers. That's just the sort of Doom experience I am looking for. The trouble began with most of the second half. The problem here is mainly the confusing map design. Everything looks really good, but to circumvent the map, you have to find a lot of secret paths. They broke a major rule in Doom map-making. The secret areas are not suppose to lead to crucial areas.

It got so bad that I would often spent up to an hour, searching around a map where all the enemies were already dead. It was boring. I don't play Doom to solve complicated puzzles. I play it to fight tons of enemies in various interesting environments!

That said, the maps themselves were still well-built. I actually do like solving puzzles, but I just don't play Doom for that sort of thing. This felt more like I was playing a game like "The Room." I spent so much time just dragging my face against every single wall, desperately hoping to find some hidden door. It sucked. I mean... it really sucked.

The last few missions were not as bad, but they still suffered from the puzzle bug. I did like that it all leads up to a fight with John Romero's severed head at the very end. This time you could actually see him, although he was still kind of far away. I kind of enjoyed that mission, despite how long it took me to figure it out.

There was one hidden mission. I could not find the secret entrance to it, so I had to load it up with only a pistol. Unfortunately, it was something called a "slaughter map," which basically means it's just absolutely packed full of enemies. In this case, there looked to be a room full of at least 30 Cyber Demons. I was actually able to finish it. The mission was designed in such a way that you could actually beat it and even kill everybody even if you go in with no weapons. I liked it!

Sorry to say this, but I am not going to recommend "Master Levels for Doom II," however I do recommend just poking around at the maps individually. They are not all bad, and I am actually happy that the maps were put together into an episodic format. There really isn't a downside to doing that, but the maps are still what they are.

This blog was written on August 19, 2024.

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