Fortress Witchell

Fortress Witchell | WITCHELL.WAD
Josh "mrjoshthemon" Baker

There are three people with the surname “Baker” in the Doom community and they’ve all contributed in some way — Nick, Eric, and Josh, though Josh is better known under his “mrthejoshmon” moniker. I’m not really going anywhere with this, I just thought it was kinda funny. Anyway Josh (I’m going to call him Josh from here on out) has been a prolific mapper over the years, with several community project contributions (including three for the original NOVA) under his belt. For 2024 he graced us with Fortress Witchell, a Boom-compatible, Witchaven-inspired, medievalist map for TNT: Evilution with a sizeable population and interesting progression.

The usual disclaimer: I played it with the GMOTA mod (version 1.5.2) using Lord Blaz. I also used the Equippable Torch mod and one of my favorite shaders, Retro FX Dither.

There wasn’t a text file included with the version of the map I downloaded (it hasn’t been uploaded to /idgames yet) but Josh’s Doomworld forum post announcing the map’s release tells a story of witches attempting to summon demons at an old medieval fort, only for their wards to fail and now the denizens of hell are running amok. Naturally it’s up to you to quell the demonic incursion. You start off in a more naturalistic, rocky area; off in the distance you can see a small stone building. This isn’t the titular fort, however, but a smaller outbuilding. The actual fortress is on the other side of a small cave, and it’s significantly larger, occupying a large sunken space with a huge horde of monsters surrounding it. You don’t necessarily have to kill everyone to get inside, as there are a couple of different ways in, but it helps, especially to get rid of the fliers asserting air superiority. The safest way in is probably through the tunnels down at moat-level, though they’re jam-packed with fools to kill.

The interior of the fortress is the most obvious example of Witchaven’s influence on the design; aside from liberal use of that game’s textures, the layout just has a certain vibe to it that is unmistakably Witchaven. It’s hard to really describe, but ultimately if you’ve not played Witchaven — and I do not recommend you do — that will not really take away from your experience here. The best I can do is describe how abstract it feels; Witchaven’s textures stick out like sore thumbs, as they’ve always poorly fitted together in that game’s overall aesthetic. But then again, I suppose this is only fitting; with fantastic texture jobs like Back to Saturn X and the OTEX texture pack, it’s easy to forget how aesthetically all over the place classic Doom has traditionally been, just like Witchaven.

Fortress Witchell isn’t a hard map, in spite of over four hundred enemies on HMP; the most difficulty you’ll have is likely at the start, with the large proportion of fliers and fireballs coming at you from all directions, and at the end, when a cyberdemon and a number of hell nobles all pop out to make your life miserable in a relatively confined space. (It was ultiamtely easier for me to just slam the button and run for the exit.)

Josh has a bit of an eccentric vibe to him; leaving aside his forum persona, and his preference for mapping almost exclusively for the TNT: Evilution IWAD, his maps sometimes have some kind of unusual conceit to them, such as his two maps jamming together various unfinished map pieces that went nowhere. A tribute to Witchaven of all things isn’t even weird. At least no weirder than Witchaven was.

get it on Doomworld

 

-june❤

 

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