Castle Nevermore

Castle Nevermore | nevermo2.wad

Björn “Vader” Ostmann

The Doom community is nothing if not very large, and with so many people passing through over the years it can be overwhelming to try and grasp the true scope of how many people have released a Doom map. Björn “Vader” Ostmann probably isn’t going to top most peoples’ list of most famous mappers; his most well-known work, beyond the obligatory one-man megawad project The Rebirth, is probably Thunderpeak, widely considered the highlight of the ZPack community project; that’s when he’s not churning out maps for the Back to Saturn X series or participating in big ZDoom projects, proving himself to be a journeyman mapper who churning out some good work to support a greater whole. Somewhere lost in the shuffle is Castle Nevermore, a gothic castle map released in summer 2004 with some new textures (the source of which I am unfamiliar with) and interesting progression.

The usual disclaimer: I played through this map using GMOTA 1.5.2, using Lord Blaz, as well as the Equippable Torch mod, the Retro FX Dither shader, and the sector light mode manually set to “Dark.”

Castle Nevermore does not feature any story in the text file. Not that I think it needs one; ultimately, Doom is as Doom does, and as much as I’m loathe to admit it, John Carmack had a kernel of a point when he said what he did about story in video games. It’s pretty much a straightforward castle map — a lot of right angles and boxy rooms, though well-detailed for all that; the core of the map is a medium-sized courtyard around which the rest of this sinister fortress revolves, but there’s a lot of things to see in all directions.

The map kicks off with you climbing a spiral stairway that leads to a bridge across a chasm; the castle occupies the rock walls on the other side. The front room won’t pose much of a challenge, but once you’ve entered the next, inner chamber, the open-ended nature of the map reveals itself, with each path having multiple choices further of where to go. The southeast staircase leads down into the dungeons that occupy much of the eastern third of the map; going north leads you into the courtyard, which will be the site of at least a couple of different battles as you work your way around. The library to the southwest isn’t accessed until later, but it plays host to a number of nasties including an arch-vile if you go for the soulsphere. The northern area gave me the most trouble, a multi-tiered chamber with a lot of cacos, imps, and barons that were awkward to deal with as they refused to leave their room. There’s also a stableyard to the east with its own trials to deal with.

The finale is a little bit of a disappointment — three barons guard a throne room that is otherwise empty until a cyberdemon teleports in to take his seat. It’s relatively narrow confines to deal with him in, and the ending is a little confusing as you descend into a secret tunnel behind the throne. Whether Vader intended for this to be part of a larger narrative is unclear; the next time his name popped up in a map credit, it was as one of the many, many designers for Knee Deep in ZDoom three years later, and his output since has continued in this vein, being almost exclusively a contributor to wider-scale community projects. He hasn’t had an official credit since 2014, though he was active on Doomworld as recently as last year commenting on the Knee Deep in Knee Deep in ZDoom release thread.

All that being said, Castle Nevermore is a decent ride. I can’t say it’s going in the “must play” pile — the balance is off in some ways, especially on UV, and the way Vader uses monster-blocking linedefs is kind of illogical — but it’s a solid enough experience with a vaguely Quake-y vibe that I’ll say it’s a solid recommendation if you’re looking for castle wads and you don’t feel like spending a million hours on Eternal Doom.

(I would, though.)

 

 

 

 

get it on Doomworld

 

-june❤

 

Quoth the raven: eat my shorts!