Oubliette Fatalis | OUBLIETTEFATALIS.WAD
RDETalus
Fantasy and Doom go hand-in-hand. From the game’s roots in the id Software tabletop sessions, to the dark fantasy trappings of its depiction of Hell and its denizens, to the obvious crossover potential with the likes of Raven’s Heretic and Hexen or id Software’s own later title Quake, Doom has long been a bloody marriage of sci-fi and fantasy. So it’s really not a surprise that there’s an awful lot of medieval settings both within the stock maps as well as the extensive user-map catalogue — Eternal Doom is a common suggestion when people ask for castle maps on Doomworld — and plenty of lifting of assets from other, more fantastical games (Hexen and its sequel in particular being quite popular for their textures.)
I couldn’t think of a decent segue so I’m just gonna say it, this review is about Oubliette Fatalis, a single map (plus an exit map) adventure for MBF-compatible source ports. It’s real good. A disclaimer up front: I played it with the GMOTA mod (version 1.5.2) using Lord Blaz (the prison start was too good to pass up a thematic link with B. J. Blazkowitz of Wolfenstein fame.) I also used the Equippable Torch mod for those dark areas (made darker by setting the sector light mode in GZDoom to “Dark” — they haven’t removed it yet, just the option for it in the menu) and one of my favorite shaders, Retro FX Dither.
Oubliette Fatalis, as the name implies, gets a lot of its inspirational DNA from Arkane’s classic RPG Arx Fatalis, including starting you off in a prison cell. Through the entire map you’ll never see the sky; it’s set entirely within an underground fortress complex (complete with living quarters and a marketplace) and the surrounding caves. It’s quite the gorgeous map for its limited palette and gloomy environs, expertly textured and detailed. The text file gives the barest hint of a story, but it's very much not important.
Structurally it’s a bit of an adventure, isn’t it? You start off behind bars, but handily there’s a secret switch in the wall that lets you out. Getting out of the dungeon puts you by a waterway that eventually feeds into a large cavern; this cavern presents one of the first really big fights as a horde of baddies rushes in to keep you from getting a key. The little living quarters section is stellarly crafted, with a library, a dining hall, a church, and other features, but also has repeated incursions from bad guys (I especially like the way they swarm into the library from multiple directions.) Eventually you’ll leave the fortress; the exterior has a cute little marketplace just inside the gate, with some heavy hitters posted to keep you from escaping. Beyond the gate is the vast cavern, one exit leading towards a broken bridge, forcing you to return and deal with another horde of baddies coming in from the previously-blocked left-hand path. Beyond here it actually gets tricky; the lava caves have some particularly tough encounters, but for me it was the absolute bonehorde of revenants rushing into the catacombs once you solved the switch puzzle.
It doesn’t seem to be the case that RDETalus has made anything else. Which is a shame, as this is a very strong first start, in many ways looking and feeling like something out of that golden age of mapping of around 1999–2002. You will have a good time with Oubliette Fatalis; it’ll take you maybe half an hour to do, but it’s a fun half hour, a self-contained fantasy adventure that is relatively rare in Doom mapping.
get it on Doomworld
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