Chosen

 

Chosen | CH133.WAD

LilWhiteMouse

We’re coming up on the thirtieth anniversary of Aliens TC, which is almost certainly the very first total conversion mod for a game ever made, and definitely the first for Doom. We can point to it as the inflection point for a cottage industry of total conversion projects over the next several decades, some of which have gone on to become commercial products themselves, like Counter-Strike.

All that being said, total conversions for Doom are relatively rare compared to, say, Duke Nukem 3D, which has a bunch, or Half-Life, which saw multiple projects go commercial. Doomers almost as a rule tend to prefer more classic gameplay. Fortunately, the advent of ZDoom in 1998 promised many, many new tools and features for modders to use, and in the quarter century since its release, its successor GZDoom has become a premier commercial game engine. But all the fancy stuff had to start somewhere, and in 2003 LilWhiteMouse, a one-time prolific Doom community member who has since disappeared without a trace, released Chosen, a short Egyptian mythology-themed wad that was as impressive as it was strange.

Set in an unspecified moment in ancient Egypt, the story begins with Kissa, a devotee of the god Seth. One day, a manifestation of Seth appears before her and gives her a quest: the god Apophis, seeking to destroy the mortal realm, has fashioned out of obsidian a giant serpent, Uraeusis. Uraeusis’ charms are effective on men and gods, but Kissa is a woman, and so Seth chooses her to enter the underworld herself and stop Uraeusis before he can cross over to the mortal realm and become invincible.

Like many ZDoom wads at the time, Chosen is cutscene heavy, with two maps out of the ten dedicated to an intro and outro, a third dedicated to difficulty selection a la Quake, and a full three levels dedicated to a multi-stage boss fight, complete with their own cutscenes. What’s left is pretty alright, but it makes for a very short game, as these are not terribly large levels. The first, “Underworld,” will probably take the longest time as it’s a winding path up a pyramid, and you’re rather short on health while enemies hit hard and take a beating.

The bestiary is extremely truncated compared to the base game; the armies of Anubis, Isis and Sekhmet, who have fallen under Uraeusis’ control, are all represented here. Anubis warriors are simple jackal-headed melee fighters; the shield variant is rare, but throws spears at you and behave similarly to the centaurs from Hexen in that they’ll hide behind their shield upon taking damage. Sekhmet’s cat-headed archers are annoying but easily dispatched; more infuriating are the winged harpy-like warriors of Isis, who clearly use Lost Soul code but are far more aggressive. You’ll also face scarab beetles and mounds that spew them endlessly, and on one occasion a pair of angry sphynx statues will come at you (but are easily torn apart by the sandstorm staff you just picked up.) There’s also Uraeusis itself, but past the first phase, fighting it requires non-conventional means.

Your armory is also similarly truncated, and on top of that it’s rather weak. You start off with a golden khopesh, and this will probably be your primary weapon as it does good damage. You also have access to throwing axes, but they are slow moving and don’t do as much damage as they really should. Eventually you’ll get a bow and arrow, taking up the shotgun slot, and this will likely be your main ranged weapon despite its own weak damage. Slot four is an ultimate weapon of sorts, a staff that summons sandstorms that function a lot like the mage’s lighting spell in Hexen. Rounding out the arsenal is a staff that shoots explosive beetles, but it behaves just like the firemace in Heretic so it’s pretty useless except in one particular situation.

What’s striking about Chosen is the aesthetic. Instead of intricate pixel sprite work like what we’re used to nowadays, Chosen replaces every sprite with new ones fashioned out of clunky 3D-rendered models. It’s a very late 90s/early 2000s kind of thing to do, and the end result is either charming or impossibly ugly, depending on your personal tastes. Mouse also uses a pretty thorough Egyptian-themed texture set, though I am unclear as to the provenance of these assets. She also makes use of module music rather than the typical midi, relying on world music-sounding electronica that's pretty striking right off the bat. The end result is something like one of the more obscure shooters of the mid to late 90s, a strange forgotten thing that only a few hundred people remember until Night Dive dust it off and put it back up for sale. Chosen of course is free provided you have Doom, but the vibe is there nonetheless.

I didn’t hate my time with Chosen. When it gets going, it’s pretty good, but it’s very much a product of its time. If its graphics don’t turn you off, its brief length and lopsided difficulty might. It was one of many attempts of the era to wed story with gameplay and while it certainly did better than most, it likely did not have a lot of takers back in the day thanks to the negative community reaction to a glut of amateurish, script-heavy ZDoom mods by modders who fancied themselves the next Hideo Kojima. But Mouse was a brilliant creative mind who left behind a lot of projects, both finished and not, and while she had her idiosyncrasies, she was doing stuff nobody had thought of at the time, with longtime community superstar Enjay recently outright calling her a genius. Chosen might be more of an experiment than anything else, but I think there’s value in the concept — it may be worth resurrecting the ancient Egypt theme for a new generation.

I don’t know where Mouse is now — her last release was in 2010 and she disappeared entirely in 2016 — but I hope she’s doing well.

 

 

MAP01: Temple of Seth

This map is dedicated to the opening cinematic. It's a pretty cool cutscene, as these things go, establishing the story and the main characters, with some cool music to boot. Interesting use of camera angles and effects to make Kissa feel less static as a purely decorative sprite. Seth unfortunately just looks silly, but that's at least partly due to the use of primitive 3D rendering.

MAP10: Temple of Seth: Choose your Path

The same temple from MAP01 but now explorable, you can select your difficulty here and poke around looking for secrets. I like the statue of Seth, reminds me of the Lincoln Memorial in the Duke Nukem 3D expansion Duke It Out in DC.

MAP02: The Underworld

The first real level is kind of a pain in the ass. Right off the bat you're under assault by Isis warriors who will tear you apart if you don't run for cover. The path through the temple complex is mostly linear, but there are some cool secrets to find that will help. You can, of course, jump down the pyramid out front if you want to get to a lower area fast. I like the arches on the sides of the pyramids -- they're just sprites but they're convincing. (I'm not sure if 3D floors were a thing yet for ZDoom at this point.)

MAP03: Guardians

Opening with a boss fight that's rather easily dispatched, "Guardians" is otherwise a straightforward level with two ruin complexes to explore in search of scarab keys that unlock the gateway to a ship floating on a river of lava. The gateway itself is really cool looking. Mind that you take out the beetle mound or you're gonna have an infestation.

MAP04: Passage to Uraeusis Part 1

You're on a boat and you're under assault from harpies. They'll tear you apart if you're not careful, but you can use the ship's sail for protection. There's also a boss fight, and while she's less dangerous than her minions, her feathers are still razor sharp.

MAP05: Passage to Uraeusis Part 2

Another more traditional map, this one is a broad field with some structures. You'll be dodging enemy fire from all directions here, but the enemy count is otherwise quite low. More dangerous are the monster closets in the key room. There's also a pair of puzzles here; one is a sand-based thing that rewards you the equivalent of a megasphere, the other is ostensibly something about finding the right path over lava but you can really just book it across. Don't try the bridge.

MAP06: Uraeusis

The first of three boss levels, you'll have to walk a bit to get to the big bad and then there's a cutscene, before you're finally pitted against the monstrous obsidian serpent causing all the trouble. It continually spawns in more enemies, mostly shielded Anubis fighters (annoying!) but if you focus all your sandstorm fire on Uraeusis you'll move on to...

MAP07: Uraeusis: Second Encounter

Uraeusis is invincible in this phase of the battle, and new enemies will of course continue to spawn in. It's not clear what to do, so you'll have to be observant. Need a hint? Use the scarab staff thingie (there's plenty of ammo for it) to destroy the columns in the lava in the side tunnels.

MAP08: Uraeusis: Second Encounter

Same arena but now the side tunnels are sealed off. It's just you and the big snake now, no other enemies. The trick here is to get it to walk onto a specific rock platform in the lava four times, but it's easier said than done, especially on higher difficulties when it moves a lot faster.

MAP09: Temple of Seth

The ending cutscene, complete with cameo from Mouse herself. You're done!

-june<3

The seer of Set can recognize
The negative evolution of consciousness
Empires forged, prospered and scattered
Like the sand-hills, they seemingly
Disappear but are never lost