SIGIL II

SIGIL II | SIGIL_II_V1_0.WAD

John Romero

Doom is 30 years old last month; there was a lot of chatter in the mainstream gaming press about the anniversary, but the community is still going strong after all these years. With id Software legend John Romero’s return to Doom mapping in 2016, after a 21-year absence, coinciding with the release of Doom 2016, it would herald a new age for the time-worn but never broken shooter. SIGIL, Romero’s semi-official fifth episode for The Ultimate Doom, was a tour-de-force of classic gameplay, an atmospheric nailbiter of tightly-wound small maps full of things that can kill you. With enemy counts frequently in the 50s and 60s, SIGIL felt like an evil puzzle box that can bite your fingers off. Four years, a pandemic, and a whole new Doom game later, and Romero has graced us with SIGIL II as a 30th birthday present, a sequel for limit-removing ports that shows how Romero has evolved as a mapper while still remaining true to the principles that informed the first one.

SIGIL II, like its predecessor and the game they’re based on, is pretty light on story. After escaping Baphomet’s series of traps at the end of SIGIL, Satan throws one last-ditch attempt at stopping the Doomguy from reaching Earth. This one’s for all the marbles; if that fails, Satan will just unleash his minions on Earth and hope Doomguy falls in the ensuing chaos. (As we’ll see in Doom II, it, uh, doesn’t work.)

Playing SIGIL II back-to-back with its predecessor will reveal a general overall trend. For about half of the set, Romero keeps the same laser focus and tight level design that defines SIGIL; many of his maps are quite small, geographically, but for SIGIL II he dares to branch out a bit with some bigger fare. The best example of this is E6M7, “Descent into Terror,” a sprawling tripartite adventure with a population in the hundreds across three distinct areas, albeit loosely connected by sharing the same space in a vast lava pit. About half of the maps are still the nasty little nest of snakes that we’re used to, but even they show signs of Romero’s evolution as his aesthetic style has grown as well.

What’s particularly interesting is the variation of themes. Where SIGIL tended towards a small constellation of themes, combining the fire and brimstone of “Inferno” with the more eldritch styles of “Thy Flesh Consumed,” SIGIL II goes through three distinct phases. The first phase, consisting of E6M1 through E6M3, is defined by a theme that should be familiar to fans of the original episode, a strong mixture of mostly “Inferno” vibes with “Consumed”-style wood paneling and iron grating. The middle phase — and I’m including the secret level here — marks Romero’s return to techbases, in various stages of consumption by the twisted reality of Hell. The third phase is a return to form, so to speak, but not quite — Romero eschews the puzzle box styling entirely and opts for bigger odysseys that should be more familiar to long-time connoisseurs of Doom mapping.

In the same way that the original SIGIL came with two soundtracks, one a high-quality one by guitar legend Buckethead that you can have for a nominal fee, and the other a collection of selected Jimmy Paddock MIDIs (with a few commissioned by Romero,) SIGIL II does the same thing, albeit this time with an entirely bespoke MIDI soundtrack. Though some fans were disappointed to learn that Buckethead wouldn’t be returning, the tracks by his replacement, THORR, are just as good. SIGIL II was made after Doom Eternal and it shows; THORR’s crunchy industrial metal soundtrack really helps connect this throughline with its thumping percussion and grinding guitars. (I think I’ve listened to “Evil Dead” like ten times now.) There’s touches of Buckethead and Sonic Mayhem throughout the soundtrack, as well, which helps give the score a feeling of being a tribute to id’s history. Jimmy, always a MIDI virtuoso, strikes a different tone, leaning more towards straightforward MIDI metal and the occasional touch of ambience.

I think on balance I like the original more; it felt more cohesive, fresh and daring. That’s not to say SIGIL II is bad — it just better reflects the sensibilities of the community the last few years, which goes to show that Romero has, at long last, come home, despite being quite a busy man between helping his wife Brenda put out mobster XCOM-like Empire of Sin, showing up to Youtube iconoclast HBomberguy’s trans charity stream, working on the sadly-canceled Blackroom, and correcting Sandy Petersen’s half-remembered bullshit on Twitter. He’s still working on Doom mapping too; last year he released a teaser of his upcoming Doom II mapset Hellion, titled “One Humanity” and sold for charity to support the war effort in Ukraine. I personally want to see him come back to Quake mapping, or even to put his personal stamp on Quake II, developed as it was after his departure — but I’ll never complain about more Romero Doom.

 THORR version

 

Free version

 

 

E6M1: Cursed Darkness

SIGIL II starts off with a bang, a high-octane mess of lava under a blue night sky reminiscent of Clan B0S’ infamous Sacrament mod, with a cool cage trap and a surprise Cybie on UV to keep us on our toes. Clever players will find the big SIGIL II logo lava chamber; cleverer players will find it’s a lot easier to do the final room once you’ve raised all the pathways.

E6M2: Violent Hatred

Classic Romero. This one feels the most like a map from the first SIGIL; it’s a delightful box of poison chocolates that gradually opens up to reveal angry waves of monsters. The outside is optional, but it may be worth it for the goodies – just mind the Cyberdemon on Ultraviolence.

E6M3: Twilight Desolation

A stark “Inferno” vibe dominates this somewhat open-ended map with the use of some techy textures. If you’re quick, you can get the plasma rifle, which should help with the swarms of lost souls. The secret exit is a reuse of Sandy Petersen’s trick with the rocket knockback from E3M6, only this time you don’t have the benefit of invulnerability.

E6M9: Shattered Homecoming

Romero hits us with a surprise techbase nightmare; the signs indicating what each sector was intended for are a nice touch. I really like the collapsed command room in the northwest, but the “training field” will provide the most hectic firefight as you assault a fortress full of zombies and imps with cacodemon support. Great level.

E6M4: Fragments of Sanity

This one gave me real strong Doom Eternal vibes – perhaps it was the broken room, perhaps it was the mix of colors. Whatever the case, it’s a solid level, a ruined techbase slowly breaking apart and sinking into a lake of fire. The crusher trap will infuriate you – I wouldn’t be surprised if Romero were to revise that section in later versions. (I seem to recall him having to do something similar with E5M4.)

E6M5: Wrathful Reckoning

Techbase, but the grody, industrial techbase of “Nuclear Plant” or “Toxin Refinery.” The big toxic disposal chamber beyond the blue door will have you dealing with harassment from all corners, but the cybie in the south end (at least on higher difficulties) will stop your progression dead until you’ve managed to take him out.

E6M6: Vengeance Unleashed

Welcome back to Regular Hell. This one plays out similarly to “Paths of Wretchedness” from the first SIGIL, with each path having its own conceit, but it’s a much more sprawling affair. The maze to the west is terrifying with a cyberdemon in it, Romero explicitly citing it as a callback to a similar one in the previous episode. Really fun map.

E6M7: Descent Into Terror

Romero’s magnum opus for this set, “Descent Into Terror” is marked by some really cool visuals (the shining red rock canyon really stuck with me) and a terrifying sense of verticality. It feels significantly more epic than usual for Romero, and will take you quite some time to complete. The community will love this one.

E6M8: Abyss of Despair

Compared to E6M7, “Abyss of Despair” is pretty low-key as a finisher. You’ll have a short jaunt into some caves, before you unlock the big teleporter to the boss arena. Romero clearly took to heart the criticism of how underwhelming the big finish of SIGIL was, but SIGIL II’s grand finale doesn’t really excite much either: a big room with a spidey and some cyberdemons, each one having to be killed to progress on the narrow catwalk they occupy. The spiderdemon has had her health tripled in DEHACKED to make her more of a threat, but all it does is make the fight more boring. Honestly, the lone baron that emerges out of the exit was more theatrical.

Final thoughts

SIGIL II is a great mapset. It’s an evolution of style for Romero, but in some ways it feels like a bit of a retread, catering more to community tastes. While aesthetically it remains very pleasing, it doesn’t really seem to bring much new to the table. And that’s okay – there’s plenty of maps out there that fall back on tried-and-true design tropes. But it does feel like Romero wanted to coast on the original episode’s success while working on his new Doom II megawad. It’s still very much worth your time, just don’t expect much new compared to its predecessor.

-June <3

In the mist, dark figures move and twist
Was all this for real or just some kind of Hell?