DBP38: Chronicles of Ghost Town

 

DBP38: Chronicles of Ghost Town | DBP_38.WAD

Doomer Boards

AUGER;ZENITH was always going to be a tough act to follow. The thirty-seventh entry in the now bi-monthly Doomer Boards Projects mapping series was a smash hit, earning a runner-up award at the 2021 Cacowards and helping bridge the gap between the anarchic Doomer Boards and the more staid (and progressive-minded) Doomworld. It was a monument to creativity, almost completely changing the industrial sci-fantasy of Doom to something out of Blade Runner, showing how you could wrangle the ancient idTech 1 engine into something sort of resembling an imagined real life. How do you even follow up on that?

You kind of can’t, as DBP38: Chronicles of Ghost Town proves. Conceived from the start as an aesthetic tribute to “Ghost Town,” the fifth map from The Plutonia Experiment, and the notorious first and so-far only episode of Mordeth, it also includes elements of Quake, Hexen (there’s even a Hexen II MIDI in the soundtrack) and Plutonia in general. On some level a lot of these aesthetics tend to blur together as it is — Plutonia’s architectural conceits often seemed to anticipate those of Quake’s, which released five days after Final Doom — but as you’ll see in Chronicles, sometimes the distinction between them is quite obvious. Much of the mapset doesn’t even really seem to adhere to the overall concepts implied by “Ghost Town” and Mordeth; I can only name two, maybe three maps that really capture that moody, dark medieval town aesthetic. Compare, say, MAP11, “Ghastly Domain” with Mordeth’s “Babel by Gaslight;” while superficially similar I think Mordeth exhibits a clearer focus on an idea. Many of Chronicles’ maps eschew this stuff completely and go more for an abstract Quake or Plutonia-style map. That’s not to say this is necessarily a bad thing, but it kind of gets away from what the initial prompt was suggesting, yeah?

(Disclaimer: I played through this using the excellent Walpurgis , playing as the Magister with Dimensional Instability mode turned on and set to fantasy monsters only, as well as Flashlight++ 8.5 with the Lamp preset,  but I watched a vanilla playthrough on Youtube to get a better sense of how the wad plays on its own. Dimensional Instability is pretty chaotic, though it does give the game a bit of a roguelike vibe with its completely random assortment of enemies.)

Chronicles of Ghost Town has no story to speak of. Zippo. None. It doesn’t even have intermission text screens after the sixth and eleventh maps. The closest we get to any sort of story is the level stats screen, which depicts a becloaked Doomguy on the outskirts of some kind of industrialized medieval town. For my purposes — given that I was playing with Walpurgis — I chose to ignore this.

As is often the case with the Doomer Boards Projects, Chronicles was headed up by Jon “40oz” Vail, of UAC Ultra fame; aside from himself, the large crew of mappers included matador, MattFright, kvsari, Sergey “SilverMiner” Burow, A2Rob, Ilya “joe-ilya” Lazarev, JadingTsunami, Chainie, Fryuko, nxGangrel, LunchLunch, Death Bear, and dmdr, all told contributing a whopping seventeen maps, which is pretty good considering that most DBPs up to that point — barring AUGER;ZENITH and a couple of Christmas-themed releases — tend to average around eight to ten maps. (Judging by how many people stuck around to map for Chronicles, AUGER;ZENITH clearly served as a useful recruiting tool… at least until DBP39: Carnage Oasis rolled around and the map count dropped down to like, twelve again.)

Honestly, as is so often the case with DBP — and indeed, these kind of regular, deadline-enforced mapping projects in general — is the results are kind of a mixed bag. Maps I really liked: “Libris Noctis,” “Ghastly Domain,” and pretty much everything from “Valley of Stone” on (in spite of that map’s flaws.) Maps I think the pack could have done without: “Parichmakher,” “The Other Side,” “Dripping Tears.” None of these maps are truly bad — even “Valley of Stone” has a lot of redeeming qualities in spite of its issues. But some of them just don’t really fit with the theme — or perhaps the problem is that the mapset is kind of all over the place in terms of theme and balance.

Where Chronicles is most promising, I think, is in the hands of matador, 40oz and LunchLunch. The first map, matador’s “Libre Noctis,” is quite beautiful, with the peaceful, secluded little house that you start in and the nearby town, seemingly abandoned by humanity but occupied by monsters. It’s not much of a town — a clutch of boarded-up buildings, a dock and a cemetery in back — but it’s something, nice-looking and atmospheric, perhaps the truest successor in this pack to the aesthetic established by Mordeth. 40oz’s contributions are classically 40oz, nice-looking and kinda twisty, especially “Phantom Manor” with its browner take on Quake 1’s “Wizard’s Manse,” though I appreciated his gestures towards the medieval town aesthetic in “Ghastly Domain” as well. His “Gideon’s Creek” is a more naturalistic take, which itself remains true to the Mordeth vibe but also feels a little like Hexen. And speaking of Hexen, while nxGangrel’s “Valley of Stone” proved unpopular, and certainly is far from perfect, I find it a beautiful map, up there with “Libre Noctis” in terms of really tying together a solid aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the “Shadow Wood” hub from Hexen. LunchLunch followed up “Valley of Stone” with “Apply some Pressure,” which I think is where the wad really comes into its own, gameplay-wise, setting the tone for the rest of the set and having a strong look of its own.

Chronicles of Ghost Town probably isn’t going to wow a lot of people who discovered the DBP series via AUGER;ZENITH. It’s slower, it’s browner, it’s smaller, it’s more thematically incoherent. But it’s still a good time, and if nothing else, the Mordeth look is iconic enough by itself that I appreciate even an uneven attempt to reproduce it.

get it on Doomworld

MAP01: Libris Noctis

matador

We start out in a quaint little dwelling in a secluded spot by a waterfall. Scattered papers rest on and around a desk. Once you leave this area and drop down into the open space, be prepared to deal with a small army garrisoned in and around the town. Most of the resistance will be pretty low-key but don't be surprised to see an arch-vile or two. The quest for the red key involves a fun -- if eminently escapable -- ambush with arachnotrons and mancubi firing down at you.

MAP02: Damned Keep Rampage

MattFright

MattFright gives us a tiny little castle keep to conquer. It's surprisingly small for the amount of enemies it throws at us, with big fights in the swampy area out front (especially when it's time to grab the red key) and in the final room where an arch-vile might catch you off guard. Decently entertaining, but awfully small.

MAP03: Cleft

kvsari

Much of this is set in a little complex set into some open caverns along a lava river. Not the toughest combat in the world, though you might be caught off guard by the mixed mess of monsters coming out of a building on the far end. I really like the blood room and the way monsters come through the bloodfalls at you once you grab the red key.

MAP04: Phantom Manor

Jon "40oz" Vail

A very fast play, this one is a Quake-esque manor floating in the clouds. Once you're in the manor proper you'll have to deal with a lot of initial resistance, but the journey upstairs is a little more managed as you're fighting through some relatively narrow walkways and passages. Just mind the archie overseeing the upper level, but his cousin who shows up downstairs is probably more dangerous.

MAP05: Parichmakher

Sergey "SilverMiner" Burow

Here's another odd little map set in and around some sort of brown-brick fortress. You're under fire pretty much from the getgo with a lot of enemies on the ridge to deal with, while the goons inside the building take their shots at you as well. Getting inside involves a nasty little surprise pit trap, but luckily you don't have to stay in it -- just wait for the floor to take you back up. Honestly most of the body count is gonna be in the first few minutes.

MAP06: Chaos Crypt

A2Rob

This one feels very Plutonia in aesthetic, with the blocky design, the brown gothic base texture scheme and half the map being (non-toxic) murky green water. It's also really small, with some interesting encounters like in the hook room as well as the fight for the yellow key, which includes a surprise archie ambush if you're dumb enough to check out the marble facade with an archvile face on it. The finale fight is pretty good too.

MAP07: Bog Standard

Ilya "joe-ilya" Lazarev

joe-ilya gives us another Plutonia-feeling map, this one defined by a complex of buildings suspended over a large toxic swamp (the inconsistent toxicity being another Plutonia staple.) Your goal is to find and kill six Mancubi, which is outright stated in a text message at the start. Most of the time you probably won't need to worry about the swamp, but there's a couple of spots where you'll want to jump into some helpfully-marked wells that dump you into some narrow dungeon or other, full of beasties, some of which are behind bars. You'll see the exit before you can actually access it (and yes it's a Plutonia diamond) but when it's actually open, you'll find it guarded by a spiderdemon with some pretty good lines of sight on you. Oh no!

MAP08: The Other Side

JadingTsunami

You begin in a wide open courtyard; the fighting doesn't start until you've gone through the door behind you. Despite the map's relative size compared to some of the others in this set, it's not the most demanding or crowded. Big fights... the lava room requires a little time to conquer and you might run into a random spiderdemon in the courtyard when it's time to leave. Not the toughest or most interesting map though it does look nice.

MAP09: Dripping Tears

Chainie

We're at the halfway mark, and Chainie's "Dripping Tears" is very much a halfway mark kind of level. It's not *bad* -- but it's generally forgettable, with little in the way of challenge, a generically Plutoniesque design and aesthetic, and overall very short. In short, it's pretty representative of most of the mapset.

MAP10: Sacrificial Grounds

Fryuko

Now this is more like it. Fryuko's built a sprawling temple complex with lots of monsters to fight through. From the fighting to get into the western wing, to the press of monster flesh in the yellow key courtyard, "Sacrificial Grounds" is marked by an ebb-and-flow of combat that never completely goes away until you've managed to clear the central hallways and tackled the cyberdemon and his goons holding court in the blood pool to the north. Great level.

MAP11: Ghastly Domain

40oz

40oz dials back some of the intensity from "Sacrificial Grounds" for a little medieval town type deal. Honestly, much of the "Ghost Town" vibe in this pack feels more like Mordeth, which isn't a bad thing. Interesting layout with the more urbanized area only occupying the north end of the map, with the central part being a large open square. 40oz turns up the heat a bit for the finale, an intense cage match with a horde of baddies pouring in from a central firepit while more baddies throw stuff at you from outside. Great stuff, that's the kinda thing I wanna see from this mapset.

MAP12: Gideon's Creek

40oz

A more naturalistic level from 40oz, a swampy, waterlogged, metal-and-ruins kinda deal. It might not be immediately clear what to do if you fall into some of the lower watery pits until you look at the automap, a gimmick that 40oz uses a couple of times but shouldn't trip you up too much. The main outdoor area isn't terribly pressing save for the occasional surprise like the revenants popping up as you go through the central gatehouse. More dangerous is the stone tunnels of little chambers you have to keep opening one by one, as you're not given a lot of room to deal with the revenants lurking down there. Decent enough map.

MAP13: Valley of Stone

nxGangrel

From reactions on the Doomworld thread and elsewhere, this one didn't seem to go over too well. The core of it is a very Hexen-esque adventure map (using music from Hexen II, even!) with quite a sizeable monster count and a relatively nice-looking aesthetic. Where it falls flat is that in terms of monster placement and overall design it feels a little more like Witchaven than Hexen, with some questionable monster placement, a dearth of ammunition (especially if you're playing on pistol start) and outright mapping errors such as a HOM that's not visible on GZDoom but can trip you up in DSDA-Doom and other more faithful source ports. For what it's worth, I generally like the map and I don't mind the extensive amount of backtracking (I did call it Hexen-esque after all) but it's a good example of the sometimes uneven quality that DBP is known for.

MAP14: Apply Some Pressure

LunchLunch

LunchLunch is a regular DBP contributor who has gone on to have credits in some big-name projects like 1x1 and Ad Mortem, as well as DBP's own AUGUR;ZENITH and Zeppelin Armada; his map "Apply Some Pressure" is a solid contribution to this mapset. Aesthetically it reminds me a little bit of the Forest Temple from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but gameplay-wise it's a quick little murder fest with some interesting encounters. The main event is the large exterior courtyard with the ruined building in the middle, which does indeed apply a little pressure to what's otherwise been a relatively sedate (if unevenly so) mapset. And just because you've cleared it out once does not mean you won't have to do it again. Fun map.

MAP15: Whispers of the Dead

Death Bear

As we near the end of Chronicles of Ghost Town we're faced with a rather large, open level from Death Bear that's pretty full of bad guys to clear out. While "Whispers of the Dead" has its moments of relatively high pressure (especially the yellow key fight and the cyberdemon that pops up on the west side) it's also rather complex to navigate, with lots of highs and lows that are difficult to visually parse. It makes for a somewhat confusing roller coaster ride that nevertheless is pretty fun.

MAP16: Vile Excision

dmdr

For the grand finale, dmdr gives us a series of big fights in a partially cavernous forest ruin. As you throw switches in the first big area, parts of the floor keep collapsing; the second area is a little more geologically stable, but boasts several waves of beasties that flood into the area (including multiple archies.) You're given more than enough ammunition to deal with them all, however. Interesting finale, though I would have liked to see a boss-level enemy or two.

MAP17: Chronicles of Ghost Town

40oz

A little more involved than your typical DBP credit map, this one has you looking for a key amongst a string of graveyards. A few monsters pop out to stop your progress but if you got past "Valley of Stone" this won't stop you at all. The little sword in the stone is a nice touch to the proceedings.

-june<3

Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
We danced and sang and the music played in a de boomtown

 

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