MAYhem 2019 | MAYHEM2019.WAD
Doomworld
I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I think at this point we can
probably safely say that
Doom
is no longer just a game: it’s a platform, something we can use to make our
own games, craft our own experiences. After all, the community has been
lifting ideas, textures and more from other properties for decades: everything
from total conversions themed after popular movies to stuff like
QDoom
making use of (at the time) cutting-edge mapping features to create a
reasonable facsimile of the original
Quake 1
experience. (I actually owned, and might still own, a copy of Marc Pullen’s
Fragging Fanatical
album, composed for
QDoom.) And when Daniel “Tormentor667” Gimmer successfully ripped the textures
from the classic Build engine shooter
Blood
for the community to use, he was adding to an ever-growing pool of themes and
ideas the community would build on. Which leads us to
MAYhem 2019, and
High Noon Drifter.
MAYhem is a yearly (well, minus 2021) month-long mapping challenge held every May, usually with a particular concept unique to that year. Sometimes it’s a mapping restriction, like restricting designers to a 2048x2048-unit space; sometimes it’s a broader theme, like a loose interpretation of Super Mario Brothers or Pokemon. 2019 was the year they went full gothic horror; making heavy use of textures from Blood as well as Clive Barker’s Undying (a game I was disappointed in but couldn’t fault for atmosphere) the denizens of Doomworld have crafted an impressive, if uneven, megawad for MBF-compatible source ports.
The usual disclaimers: I’m a firm believer in playing games however you want to, and while MAYhem 2019 features a large collection of new monsters, items and weapons, I chose to apply a few mods to enhance the experience. For starters, I used HorrorMovieRei’s excellent Gothic Doom reskin mod — specifically, I stripped out most of the sprites, leaving only the cacodemon, arch-vile and zombieman replacements. This latter one made the zombiemen — otherwise presented in the wad as headless versions of the default sprites — identical to the wad’s chaingunner replacements, but I personally thought that made it a little more interesting, particularly since the chaingunners have been somewhat defanged here. I also used Ashtralfiend’s “Earthbound” palette, which did a lot to bring the game more in line with the classic Blood palette. Old standbys RetroFX with Dither and Flashlight++ 9.1 — the latter set to a very dim, shoulder-mounted flashlight, similar to what you’d find in the interwar years of the 20th century — were also included. And last but not least: High Noon Drifter.
While
MAYhem 2019
includes two new weapons — a flamethrower, and a Necronomicon that casts
powerful spells from health — I made the choice to include
High Noon Drifter
in part because I felt it fit the
Blood
theme very well. “Occult gunfighter” is a fun character archetype, embodied in
the likes of Caleb, and the description for the mod certainly seems to hint at
the concept, nevermind the use of an occult staff and even that demon mask
that transforms you into a giant monstrous entity. It’s great fun to play and
made most of my time with
MAYhem 2019
an eldritch blast; the downside is, it doesn’t really handle slaughter very
well unless you’re willing to turn on the option to allow the transformation
to be infinite (i.e. not use your magic ammo.)
MAYhem 2019 is something of a mixed bag. There are some truly great maps, there are some less great maps (none are truly bad, not even joe-ilya’s) and then there’s the slaughter stuff that borders on old-school at times. The finale in particular is essentially a puzzle — the proper way to do it is to use the central platform (which hurts to stand on) as a shield from the arch-viles and to take them out as quickly as possible so you can focus on all the other bullshit coming your way. It’s my impression that a lot of people struggled with this fight as well as the final map in general (that crusher sequence, arrrgh.) But beyond the slaughter maps — of which there are only a few — it’s honestly an extremely fun experience, especially when it moves away from more abstract designs towards something DoomCuteish.
Quite a few folk from around the Doom community answered the call to map or compose for this set. While the soundtrack has a few things sourced from elsewhere (including, obviously, Blood, but also such diverse sources as Terraria and Breath of Fire II) there are a few bespoke tracks as well, including one from Jimmy Paddock. Mappers include several community project veterans, among them Ryan “obake” Anderson, Artem “DukeOfDoom” Orekhov (for whom this was his second project), Walter “daimon” Confalonieri (who has contributed to so many community projects that his Doomworld forum title makes note of it), NeedHealth, Worm318, DMPhobos, Cacoward winner A2Rob, whirledtsar (who seems to be semi-retired from the community in the years since), speedrunner, speedmapper, and slaughter aficionado Bdubzzz, and slaughtermap extraordinaire Benjogami. We also get the irreplaceable, multi-Cacoward-winning Darryl “dobu gabu maru” Steffen, who has hosted the DWmegawad Club for years and years in addition to having hosted several community projects of his own. The finale map was constructed by community pillars rd and Nine Inch Heels, the third (and so far final) collaboration between the two. Matt “RottKing” Cibulas contributes a map with his typical idiosyncratic style and naming convention. Ilya “joe-ilya” Lazarev — a speedrunner whose maps are strictly love-it-or-hate-it, contributed two maps, one of which was a collab with fellow Doomer Board Project veteran Redead-ITA. The always unconventional Mike “Impie” MacDee, man of a million total conversions, contributed no less than three maps, all of which rank among my favorites in the set. And last but not least is James “Obsidian” Caldwell, who aside from leading the project, contributed both a regular map as well as the credits map.
There are a ton of new monsters, most
of them outright replacing or modifying existing ones. Some are the same, just
with new graphics; others might resemble their default appearance but have
slightly new behavior. Some, like the bat-summoning vampire, do both! Brand
new monsters include the skeleton, which runs around like a naked revenant and
throws bones at you; the arachnorb (and its bigger relative) which resemble
the brainy demons from the base game but without their spidery platforms,
floating around and throwing plasma bolts at you; deathcubes (resembling the
Icon of Sin’s monster spawners) that spit more plasma at you; mummies, ghosts,
flying explosive lightning balls (and the Tesla coils that spawn them), l’il
Cthulhus, chainsaw maniacs, and more! It’s a shockingly large monster roster
that doesn’t map cleanly onto the original bestiary, allowing for some
interesting encounter setups.
In spite of some hangups towards the late game I had a really good time with MAYhem 2019. If you’re looking for a solid gothic horror experience, especially if you like Mike MacDee’s maps, this is an excellent choice.
get it on /idgames
MAP01: Spiteful Hall
Ryan Anderson (obake)
A short, but mildly nasty, little opener from obake. The opening hallway is spooky and dark, but if you’re clever you’ll instead duck around to the right, allowing you to catch the shotgunners by surprise as well as have a more straightforward go at the mess of skeletons coming your way. The exit area is a long curving hallway full of bad guys, including the weird exploding lightning balls that home in on you.
MAP02: Murskville
DukeOfDoom
Cute little town level with two distinct areas. The first one is more open with bigger buildings and lots of hitscanners; the second area is smaller, darker, and must be accessed with the blue key — mind the vampire guarding the gate. Secrets are easy and fun to find; less fun is the surprise waiting for you at the end. The music feels incongruous, but hell, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had actual jazz music, so who am I to judge?
MAP03: Entry̷͂w̶͝ă̶y̶̛
Walter Confalonieri (daimon)
A strange, linear trip from Walter Confalonieri, this one rapidly swaps between futuristic techbase to hellish gothic warren. It’s got its spooky moments, but the whole thing just has a bit of a Silent Hill-esque vibe as the layouts between the two themes are identical, and you’ll switch between the two regularly. A cool idea.
MAP04: Dull Needle
NeedHealth
This one feels like a proper Blood level, a creepy sort of tomb complex with lots of stained glass and plenty of cultists and devils. The chainsaw guys are introduced here with a couple of well-placed ambushes. I like the big fight in the room that opens up once you throw the switch at the end of the corridor.
MAP05: Orpheus Desu
Mike MacDee (Impie)
Impie takes us to a gruesome Japanese village flooded with toxic sludge and dotted with piles of bones. Some of the bones on this map aren’t stationary, however… So far MAYhem 2019 has been very claustrophobic with few major encounters; Impie treats us to a much more open map chockablock with skeletons and mummies, on top of a few of the revamped pain elementals and mancubi. Health is pretty stingy…
MAP06: Chrono
Worm318
This one kinda reminds me of Heretic maybe, though the music could be an alt-universe Rise of the Triad track. Anyway, it’s a big kind of garden-and-grotto deal, multi-layered with a big quadripartite central chamber surrounded by alternating pools of water and blood. The tall platform in the center of this room has four switches, and your task is to reach and throw each switch one by one. Lots of hitscanners here, and quite a few flyers including the new flying arachnorbs and several Deep Ones who will take quite a beating. Fun level, if a bit complicated to navigate. I like the arachnorb ambush when you jump through the hole in the wall.
MAP07: Mind Screw at the Cemetery Complex
Redead-ITA and Ilya Lazarev (joe-ilya)
Back to linearity. This one revolves around a cemetery and associated facilities, but like MAP03 you’ll be flipping between a normal-looking map and a more hellish one, revealed cleverly by having you approach a light that breaks when you get close, turning around you’ll see the passage has changed into blood and flesh. Not the most clever map, though the surprise archie is a good scare.
MAP08: The Rats in the Well
DMPhobos
Oh, I like this one. You start off by jumping into a well; it uses a silent teleporter trick for a faux-3D effect, dropping you into a massive underground flooded tomb complex. It’s a big, open-ended maze with lots of skeletons and a surprising amount of arachnorbs and cacos for you to deal with. Be mindful of jumping down into the final arena before you’ve finished up in the map — you can’t get back.
MAP09: Baron Loqui’s Summer Resort
Mike MacDee (Impie)
Impie drops a map in the grand tradition of “Wormhole” from TNT: Evilution, but much more cleverly executed. He’s built a creepy old mansion in the style of his older Realms of Dr. Chaos, and through genius use of silent teleporters and keeping the two versions of the house well separate on the automap (so that you’re not likely to see it unless you’re zoomed out or scrolling) he slightly gaslights the player a bit by changing certain details around. Wasn’t that door locked before? Wasn’t that a blue skull key? I don’t remember this closet having a skeleton in it… For its relative size it’s a brilliant little map, leaving the player unsure of which version of reality they actually left the mansion in.
MAP10: Stony Brook
A2Rob
I feel like this one used a sky texture
throughout the map instead of a ceiling texture and it looks strange…
nevertheless, we’ve got a bit of an “Inmost Dens” clone with two sections
bisected by a wall each with a central structure. You’ll mostly be looking for
ways to get onto the structures, but A2Rob throws hordes of skellies,
hitscanners, and a random archie or two to stop you. The blue key ambush is
bad enough; the repeat skeleton rush is worse. Good luck!
MAP11: Maudlin
James Caldwell (Obsidian)
This is a fun one. You’re in a sort of brick-and-iron library surrounded by a dark outer area covered in foggy swamp. It’s split between three main areas, each with their own multiple intense encounters, from the skeleton horde in the northern room to the mancubi causing problems in the dark sewer area to the west to the surprise arch-viles in the southern starting room. Once you’ve found the switch to open up the map a bit, a swarm of bats come in to make your life a pain. Neat level.
MAP12: Necropolis Under Papa John’s
Matt Cibulas (RottKing)
RottKing always has the most amazing map names… Anyway this one is just manic. It’s a vast underground tomb/sewer complex with lots of tight encounters, from the opener with satyrs and fireball-spewing pain elementals to the vampire coterie waiting for you at the top of a wooden staircase to the teleporting chainsaw zombie ambush; it’s a non-stop ride, with the Terraria music only adding to the breakneck atmosphere.
MAP13: Storming the Estate
whirledtsar
Exactly what it sounds like. You’ll be clearing a massive manor and its courtyard; the manor itself isn’t so convincing as Impie’s in MAP09, but it’s close enough for government work, a couple of stately rooms connected by lengthy, circuitous paths that eventually circle back to the courtyard. Lots of enemies of all kinds here, keeping you on your toes as you hunt for the keys that let you into progressively more of the map, ultimately culminating in a boss fight that upon victory dumps you immediately into…
MAP14: Minotaur’s Inferno
Bdubzzz
Welcome to Hell. Bdubzzz is a speedrunner and slaughter addict who has contributed to a number of slaughterwad projects; “Minotaur’s Inferno” is perfectly emblematic of his mapping style, a hectic monster mash that makes heavy use of the new monsters, especially the minotaur (naturally.) In normal gameplay you could probably grind through this with little problem; playing with High Noon Drifter, I had to rely heavily on the Mask of Basilissa’s transformation mode to wade through the hordes of bad guys and hope for the best.
MAP15: Their Daily Bread
Benjogami
Thought you were done with slaughter? You’re not done with slaughter. Benjogami gives us a strangely abstract bit of ruins with plenty of lava in the basement; while the initial resistance isn’t too bad (nevermind the ghosts) you’ll be dealing with not one but two big fights towards the end, both of which are honestly kinda tough. The fight in the chamber full of giant bibles gave me a lot of trouble; eventually I wound up developing a strategy of holding out by the lava falls and making a run for the secret exit rather than try to fight the hordes of enemies showing up including several Deep Ones.
MAP31: Dr Tongue’s Castle of Terror
Mike MacDee (Impie)
A short but sweet one in Impie’s inimitable style, set to music from Zombies Ate My Neighbors! It’s a small manor house and grounds, lightly defended but rather cute architecturally. The hidden door behind the fireplace isn’t the secret; the extra-hidden lab in the back of the room beyond is. Not much in the way of resistance, especially after the last two maps — a real breather, thankfully.
MAP32: Private Property
Ilya Lazarev (joe-ilya)
This abandoned
farmhouse isn’t so abandoned as a large cohort of bad guys ranging from
cultists and imps to several fliers of all varieties lurk around the farm and
in the surrounding forest. Some fun encounters here, from the barn ambush to
the cultists and chainsaw guys lying in wait just inside the farmhouse, to the
assault in the attic. Definitely not the worst joe-ilya map I've played.
MAP16: Madman’s Vault
Darryl Steffen (dobu gabu maru)
We’re in the home stretch. While MAYhem 2019 has been all over the place structurally and aesthetically, sometimes Doom, sometimes Blood, “Madman’s Vault” is as pure a Doom map as can be, a massive stone vault amidst a sea of lava. There's all kinds of great moments, from the early moments of picking your way across a maze of narrow wall tops to dealing with a room full of crushers to the multiple archie ambushes (including a great one where the library bookshelves keep rising and falling,) to a puzzle secret requiring a keen eye and observational skills, all culminating in a brief but tough fight with a minotaur and his retinue in the central chamber.
MAP17: Naraka
rd and Nine Inch Heels
Whew boy. I’m not gonna lie — while I didn’t quite cheat, I did fiddle with some of the options in High Noon Drifter to make the last two fights more manageable. The final map of MAYhem 2019 is in fact absolute mayhem — you’re thrown into hell (a little more fire and brimstone over Bdubzzz’s more abstract offering) and tasked with retrieving three keys. The blue and yellow key fight aren’t TOO bad provided you’re good at crowd control and can keep that momma arachnorb boxed up in the latter encounter, but then you’re faced with a teethgrinding (literally!) crusher puzzle that will really test your dexterity and then reward you with an even bigger fight with tons of skeletons, hitscanners, vampires, and a few archies overseeing everything. Grab the final key and you get to go back through the crusher. The final fight is in a truly gorgeous Sunlust-esque arena but you are going to see an enormous amount of bullshit, from a steady trickle of arch-viles to a horde of chainsaw guys, arachnorb snipers, and devil knows what else, and making it through is a puzzle in itself. Survive it all and can safely consider this mapset conquered… but at what cost?
MAP18: Epilogue
James Caldwell (Obsidian)
A simple credits map, though it’s certainly moody and spooky with the Duke Nukem 3D music and the quiet, gloomy tomb…
-June <3
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