stroggo

today we're taking a look at 2019 cacoward eviternity. featuring a completely new texture set, new enemies, and a new soundtrack, it's an impressive aesthetic overhaul of doom, while still remaining rooted in the doom aesthetic instead of being a partial or total conversion. the gameplay is also quite a lot of fun... for the most part.

first the good. so much of this wad is a visual spectacle, and every one of the six chapters has a convincingly consistent theme through each level, enhanced by levels in the same chapter typically having a simulated direct physical connection to each other. the soundtrack is killer with a number of custom jimmy paddock tunes, MIDIs from other big heavy hitters, and a couple ports of tracks by leprous and blut aus nord that sound far better than they have any right to. and a lot of the levels provide a good balance of action that requires nimbleless and awareness of a series of connected spaces against locked arenas that require defending and expanding safe territory. and single encounters don't wind up taking forever or entail a lot of tedious cleanup. the new monsters are generally a good addition as well, even if i feel the humble captain and nightmare demon were more impactful than the flashy and explosive astral cacodemons and annihilators. the updated pistol is a huge improvement, enough to make it a viable choice instead of something discarded once a second weapon is obtained.

on the flip side... this WAD took a lot longer than i thought it was going to after completing the first half of it, and that's largely due to two maps - anagnorisis and hydration, taking 2h and 1h30m respectively. they are collectively way too long and tedious, especially when getting 100% kills. anagnorisis, with is endless cliffs of imps, is especially bad in this regard. i didn't even get all the kills on anagnorisis and it still took that long. based on this and a couple maps in alkaline, i think i'm developing an opinion that all magnum opus maps are bad. i'm not going to defend this statement; don't "at" me. there are a few arena maps that are pretty underwhelming as they boil down to a room or two and a bunch of enemies. map 11 and 12 prominently feature ice physics, my least favorite part of heretic, and something that caused me to get a headache. but the most persistent complaint is the specters in dark areas - this shows up in a solid third of the maps and in software rendering mode they're especially difficult to see without cranking the gamma correction up all the way. also the final boss is kind of a complete mess; fortunately decino figured out a consistent way to do this that i just stole.

but overall, eviternity is a lot of fun, even if parts of it are an uphill battle at times. the next WAD i'm playing though will be... speedier.

GOLD MEDALS

• MAP10: Creation
• MAP15: Cryonology
• MAP24: Gossamer
• MAP29: Elysium

SILVER MEDALS

• MAP04: Regicide
• MAP07: Facilitate
• MAP14: Frimaire
• MAP22: Viscera
• MAP26: Transcendence

BRONZE MEDALS

• MAP09: Decrepitude
• MAP31: Imperator
• MAP27: Heliopolis

THE TNT AWARD FOR MOST SUFFERING:

• MAP30: Eternity

THE ANAGNORISIS AWARD FOR THE MOST BRILLIANT YET PAINFUL MAGNUM OPUS:

• MAP32: Anagnorisis

THE LEE JACKSON AWARD FOR BEST NON-DOOM MIDI:

• "Godhood Suite" by James Paddock (MAP29)

STATS:

• Playtime: 20h, 32m
• Kills: 8898/8939
• Secrets: 55/111
• Items: 2019/2315

Chapter I: Archaic
MAP01 (Inauguration): a very straightforward opener... with a SHOCKING TWIST!!! the pistol is actually useful! it's amazing what upping the fire rate some can do, and it retains its vanilla property of perfect accuracy when tap-firing, which also happens more quickly. other than that the level is a very straightforward back-and-forth affair with a few switches, some hitscanners, imps and pinkies. it's mostly designed to get you accustomed to the new pistol. you do get the shotgun and it is still better though.
MAP02 (Subterranean): relatively similar to the first map, but it's got slightly more teeth to it. it's incredibly dark though - dark enough that i had to fiddle with lighting settings at several points in the map. and of course, the map takes advantage of this by stuffing specters all over the place. i guess that's the point of specters, but that doesn't mean i have to like it. the level layout is definitely the biggest appeal here in my opinion, and definitely stronger than the first level. there's no super shotgun and there are cacodemons and hell knights, but not enough of either to bog the level down.
MAP03 (Drain): similarly to map 02, there is a lot of darkness, a strong interconnected layout, and increased resistance. there's even a few mancubi and revenants this time, but fortunately and slightly oddly there's a plasma rifle and plenty of cells which helps a great deal. there are some lowlights - there are a couple switches that, having completed the level, i have no idea what they might have done or if pushing them was necessary. but you get a lot of flexibility on approaching the level. for example there's an early ambush that you could try and ride out with the shotgun, spend your limited cells, or bail out of it entirely and jump into the water below, circling back and taking it on from higher ground. that's good design right there, in my opinion.
MAP04 (Regicide): okay the first impression of this map was pretty negative, as i immediately got ganked by specters in a pitch dark room. the rest of the level is actually quite good though. a lot of quite expansive areas surround the central castle, and there aren't very many rockets, so pinning down larger monsters with the chaingun will become an essential skill, and you're given a ton of ammo to do it with. breaking into the castle, as expected brings some more close quarters combat, although it's still relatively more open. there's a lot of exquisite detailing, especially the library area, and the tiny model of the throne room in there with a tiny wall that lowers when you hit the switch lowering the real wall. it puts the "cute" in "doom cute". there's also a nifty secret with a megasphere that will require some pretty precise straferunning. the second half of the moat area is guarded but a few more arachnotrons, which have received an overhauled plasma shot appearance and sound - you won't miss it. getting all three keys rewards you with a double archvile surprise before the exit, fully leaving behind the very easy combat of the first few maps.
MAP05 (Demon): this level starts with a very slow elevator ride, which - suprise, surprise - has some specters show up just to make sure you're paying attention. those sucked up a lot of my health, and i really should have just restarted, but i shouldered on regardless. the rest of the level is basically one big room - a very nicely-detailed library - and a big fight split in to a couple waves. it also introduces the nightmare demon - a green pinky that's faster and twice as tough. at least they're visible. i found that securing and maintaining the high ground was the way to go, especially since the zombiemen can't make it up to you. finishing the slugfest allows you to head on through the portal to the next episode.

Chapter II: Automation
MAP06 (Reconnect): we're leaving the castles behind for the industrial zone. the visuals on this one are very cool, especially the chrome buttons and the skull switches with the yellow circuitry background. this level is a little all over the place, with a lot of directions to explore and not necessarily much of a push to get started. there's an easily accessible early plasma rifle and a ton of cells making this map actually quite easy. a few nightmare demons are floating around though and they can be complicated to deal with before you get your hands on it. the ambush outside is pretty fun as well on account of the huge crowds of zombiemen that you are gently encouraged to gib in groups with the rocket launcher. this level also helps introduce which textures serve as elevators and doors for this area - it wasn't initially clear to me that there were a few elevators that could be used to get in to the central area.
MAP07 (Facilitate): this is kind of a party, and thankfully isn't dead simple related. there's quite a few things to check out in the initial area including a bunch of imps able to attack much of the area and some very inconveniently placed chaingunners. but the key is finding the super shotgun at the end of a dark canal, guarded by - you guessed it - specters that you can't really see. but with that and a few other weapons in hand, head on down to the basement and take on the giant crowd of zombiemen (and a few pinkies and chaingunners). there are enough of them that you'll probably have to run around and grab ammo, and there are enough of them spread out enough that they can actually be a little threatening. fortunately there are some barrels placed around to help even the odds. the finale has the greatest concentration of heavier enemies - just cacodemons and revenants, but there's no rocket launcher or plasma rifle in the level so it'll take some patient work to cut your way through.
MAP08 (Stench): i have very little love for this map; the good thing is that it's relatively short. it starts off well enough, even if there are a lot of things that are door-textured but don't open when interacted with and don't take keys. but head into the backrooms and you'll immediately get attacked by two chaingunners in a nearly completely dark sector, and you'll also find that the door you came in through won't let you back out. the following area is a series of escalating annoyances and remote door switches, and you can't leave to scrounge up more ammo, so hopefully you came with enough. the back half of the map adds some platforming to the mix, and the resulting wayfinding is a little frustrating. there's even a literal arrow on the ground at one point (a la downtown), presumably because the area was too dark and murky to see the platforms raising on the far end of it.
MAP09 (Decrepitude): i wound up liking this map far more than i liked the composite elements, which is a bit strange. ammo is very limited, there's a ton of damaging floor, spectres in murky areas on said damaging floor. and a lot of exploration that has to get done, especially if you're looking to get all of the kills. but with careful play it's a lot more approachable than it might seem at first. there's both a chainsaw and berserk, which can help, but aren't mandatory at any point. i mostly just chainsawed a few pinkies - don't try to chainsaw the nightmare demons, as they seem to stagger less reliably. the improved pistol helps a lot as well, allowing you to pick off enemies at range before they become a problem without it taking forever. midway through the level, you pick up a computer area map, which helps greatly with determining what places still have to be explored. it also helps with finding the 7 secrets, including, oddly, the wad's first BFG which i only used on the two archviles guarding it. as far as the damaging floor goes, there are enough rad suits to cover most of the time needed, and precise movement can handle the rest. there was one area that was a little tough to track down that contains the wad's next custom monster, the astral cacodemon - a jittery, screaming thing that fires a ton of projectiles, fine in isolation, but probably going to cause problems later.
MAP10 (Creation): a big splashy finale for the second chapter, and a lot more involved than the first one. you're beset from pretty much every side from the start, but you're loaded up with the key weapons quickly and can dive in to clearing out this warehouse-like area. some of the rudest bits of the level are a couple traps that lock you in with a large number of hitscanners and pretty much require you to ride it out. the first one offers partial invisibility to help out, and the second offers a comically large number of inconveniently placed barrels. the latter is followed up by a spider mastermind which is promptly crushed with a crusher, like, well... The Crusher. there's a tricky maze area that i passed up the first time around, but make sure to explore it fully as it conceals a plasma rifle, and lowers the crates making future exploration easier. the big finale introduces another new enemy, the annihilator, which is a silvery baron-sized monster that is a fusion of chaingunner and cyberdemon. highly dangerous, but will infight with basically anything with zero provocation. the only unfortunate part of the level is all the switches that have unclear purposes, but just hit all of them and things should work out.

Chapter III: Crystalline
MAP11 (Wanderer): this is a lightly populated and very beautiful map to introduce the snowy aesthetics of the third chapter. it also borrows the two worst pages of heretic's book - water that pushes you around, and terrible slippery ice physics. and sure, it's bad that you have to try and dodge revenant missiles while sliding around. but the lack of control and all-white surrounding was a trip straight to simulator sickness for me which kind of overshadows everything else. also there's a new monster i guess called the former captain that fires arachnotron plasma. administer super shotgun to alleviate.
MAP12 (Brisk): another map with ice physics to muddle through. there's a mean trap that drops you into a pit of nightmare demons, and despite appearances you can't run out of it. eventually you get inside and the ice physics go away and there's some tough encounters to handle. all of the custom monsters are rolled out in the same level for the first time and they have some interesting wrinkles - the captain's bullets can be dodged but won't infight with each other, nightmare demons are much more effective at flush ing you out from cover when trying to fight an archvile, astral cacodemons have a cooldown on a teleport and are less scary to fight than they might seem, and annihilators are incredibly difficult to handle when not distracted by infighting. oh, and the final area puts an annihilator next to an archvile closet, and if you kill it near there, you'll find that despite sharing a similar death animation with the cyberdemon it is still resurrectable.
MAP13 (Pathfinder): mercifully much less ice physics here, but this map is highly unfriendly in different ways. the initial courtyard has a dozen enemies or so. poke around and you'll find a super shotgun... which springs forth two revenants. go inside the castle and you can find a rocket launcher.. which spawns a rocket launcher on pickup. take the teleporter to the far side of the castle and prepare to get pelted by imps on cliffs. it takes a decent amount of back and forth to get up and running - it can help to drag some of the monsters together for infighting purposes. even once that's done there are some very tricky encounters, like a tiny room with a pair of archviles that slowly floods with imps, and eventually a third archvile. but probably the biggest encounter is one along a spiral staircase that gets opened up with the red key - the whole side of the staircase opens up and tons of enemies flood out. it's a lot of tricky close quarters fighting, made harder by the broad sightlines given to the monsters, and the teleporter they get between rooms that you can't access. a fun if challenging map.
MAP14 (Frimaire): this map continues to crank up the difficulty. it's pretty unfriendly on a blind playthrough, with enemies everywhere and all the weapons tucked away into various corners. finding a route that leaves you appropriately armed is tough, but the good news is that once you've gotten armed a decent chunk of enemies will have wrecked themselves through infighting. the initial cave area is very nicely done, along with an interior castle area and an exterior fortress. fortunately the only ice physics are limited to the a bit of the outside. however, even once you have all the weapons, there are a lot of tough close quarter fights. the yellow key can get a little messy if you get pinned by the astral cacodemons, but the big fight in the red key area is probably the biggest one so far, with cacodemons of both types, captains and arachnotrons spraying down the arena with plasma from outside, and a big flood of imps to push everything back into the corner. there's pretty limited plasma and no BFG that i found, so there's a lot of rocket work that'll have to happen.
MAP15 (Cryonology): we have fully shifted into the world of larger-scale combat now. the castle this level takes place in is maybe the most striking level yet. it can be pretty tricky to get started - a lot of the weapons are covered by pretty nasty traps. but the level invests a huge amount into the yellow key fight in a big marble pavillion in a snowy canyon. picking up the key spawns several waves of hitscanners in rapid succession, and then cacodemons start flooding in from everywhere with a wide variety of ground support, including the wad's first cyberdemon. you'll definitely want the BFG that's right there - there's a massive amount of cells and rockets here which lets you go a little nuts - even if the midi sounds like something that plays on an easy listening channel during christmas. in a slightly odd touch, the level has no plasma rifle, so clean up can be a bit tough occasionally. getting to the secret exit tough as the trek back through the level causes a large amount of astral cacodemons to spawn along with revenants and a couple archviles, and the where and how of getting to these enemies is not completely straightforward - the group of enemies can be approached in two different directions and your success depends on not having to fight a dozen astral cacodemons at once. two bfg-related notes; it doesn't seem to be possible to kill an annihilator with a single BFG shot, as it's too narrow, and astral cacodemons are incredibly annoying to pin down with the tracers.

Secret Maps
MAP31 (Imperator): the first secret map, unmoored from the themes of the rest of the wad, is an intensely vertical citadel jutting out of burning gold. trying to make your way up is tricky as a lot of enemies have superior footing, and it's very easy to accidentally fling yourself all the way back to the bottom when trying to avoid captain fire. the back area is relatively more chill - there are a lot of canyons and caves to explore. there are a lot of mancubi stationed to watch over the area, but there are also plenty of rockets, and really only one trap that will cause problems. there is a pretty limited number of radsuits, but there's less damaging floor to explore than you think there might be. coming back to the original area, though, is significantly ruder. the first room loads up with a cyberdemon, a bunch of mancubi in elevated positions, and hell knights and pinkies to complicate your rocket usage. i hit the switch to leave and cut through the hitscanners, which allowed convenient funneling of the enemies through a single choke point. the second ruder encounter is far worse though - a tiny room fills with zombiemen, shotgunners, revenants, two archviles, and an annihilator. using rockets is absolutely not workable, and there is a secret BFG - but you'd have to hit the switch and reach the teleporter while all that is going on. not a huge fan of that part, really.
MAP32 (Anagnorisis): let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: a blind run of this map took me over two hours. trying to summarize it is like trying to summarize the experience of visiting to louvre - there's so much to do and see, and it's not a simple linear progression either. getting all the keys and hitting all the switches opens up all kinds of interconnected passages that take you all over the map, and each area is visually distinct enough that you won't get so lost. the combat is not unreasonably hard, but there is an awful lot of individual encounters. really only the final encounter is anything close to slaughter and it's less than 100 enemies. but the overall effect of the length and size of the map is that it's just immensely draining. by the time i was getting towards the exit i was so done, and having several cliffs full of imps that need to be slowly dismantled isn't exactly fun the third time you do it. i didn't bother getting 100% kills here either - once i found a single chaingunner in a secret, i knew that would take even more time than i had spent and i just wanted to get on with the rest of the wad.

Chapter IV: Brutality
MAP16 (Neutralize): this map is tiny, thankfully, but it's not exactly easy. spend too much time picking off imps at the start and cacodemons will arrive to flush you out. the first super shotgun is guarded by an archvile at range that you're probably going to have to carefully pick away at with the chaingun. the rocket launcher requires you get into the pit with an annihilator while a gallery of onlookers take potshots at you. and once you're ready to exit, two archviles pop up to wreak havoc. hopefully you saved some of the 15 or so rockets you got. it's not bad, just a little unpleasant overall, especially aesthetically with all the concrete and dark water. thankfully there are no specters to take advantage of the murkiness.
MAP17 (Segregation): continuing the episode's trend of being small and mean, the start of this map dumps you into a dark pit with a cyberdemon and a super shotgun and has you get to work. exiting the level involves clearing both of the wings leading off this room, and the combat is very ambush heavy and in tight quarters, and there isn't exactly a lot of health to work with either. one wing has a rocket launcher and the other has the plasma rifle, and you'll need them for the heavy opposition you face. probably do the left wing with the rocket launcher first, as the other wing has an annihilator in a tight corridor that'll be tough to handle with the super shotgun. oh and at the end of each wing is an archvile that gets teleported into the middle of the fight you just did to make your life harder.
MAP18 (Subterfuge): this map continues this episode's rude streak with the entry elevator dropping you directly into a room surrounded by enemies. you have a number of choices of areas to explore, none of which are particularly friendly. but if you want anything better than a chaingun it has to be done. there's a lot of damaging floor around here, but also plenty of radsuits so it's more something to keep an eye on than a factor for your health. there are three major wings, each of which has their own key, and collecting them all lets you exit. two of those make you fight annihilators in close quarters again - there's basically no way to avoid taking damage here unless you are exceptionally careful. when i reached the exit i was still missing a full quarter of the kills, and it was a lot of poking around and doomwiki checking to try and get the rest of them. and honestly i'm not really sure how it all worked - there's a wall in one of the starting areas that lowers at some point and i have no idea how or why that happened. kind of a confusing mess at the end and it's a ton of secrets for a not-particularly-large map.
MAP19 (Hydration): this map... this map. this map is a massive huge sprawling adventure. it's not quite as big as MAP32, and it's considerably more linear, which helps with actually completing the thing. there's tons of close quarters combat here, which is not a bad thing. it's actually mostly pretty well put together, but there's only a few places in the map where it breaks out into the larger-scale encounters that help it actually justify its size and monster count - and the most significant of those is somewhat awkwardly placed at something like a third of the way through the level. some of the combat leans on gimmicky tricks, like having a monster in front of you teleport behind you, that i'm not a fan of. some of the final encounters are exhausting as well, with small closets getting repopulated three or four times every time you hit a switch. the actual progression through the level is gated by a ton of switches, gates, lifts and other contraptions, and significantly hampers the flow of the the level. special mention to the room that requires you to stop crushers in the right place to proceed and gives each one a switch to start it and stop it. just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should. there's a teleporter room at the end to help get the rest of the kills and secrets but i don't know that it's actually any easier to use than just walking around the level.
MAP20 (Convolute): the finale of this episode is tough to like. a large chunk of the combat in the level (by monster count) mostly consists of running back and forth in the same hallway, hitting switches and spawning additional waves of enemies. the small upper area in the first room sees several waves of repopulation as well. the area to the right, if you go to first, requires killing a significant chunk of enemies before a radiation suit runs out, and even once they're dead requires pushing your way past a few imps while still dealing with damaging floor. hopefully you're not trying to do that area with a chaingun. the outside area is difficult to work your way in to as the canyon floor is difficult to see and covered in damaging floor. there's a switch that'll summon a cyberdemon but you're given a very easy way to telefrag it - kind of odd for the finale. doing that though spawns a number of archviles and other monsters through the level... again, and ammo might get a bit tight by the end.

Chapter V: Descension
MAP21 (Imperishable): welcome to hell. this is a pretty rough map, but it's a lot more fun that some of the preceding ones. there's heavy oppositon right out of the gate and finding appropriate weapons can be challenging. notably there's no rocket launcher, even in a secret, and i really wished i had a big stock of rockets - there are a lot of inconveniently positioned enemies that can cover a huge chunk of the starting valley, and in many cases i had to awkwardly pick away at them with the chaingun. that starting valley has a few switches scattered around it needed to progress and each one opens up more sightlines for enemies, unleashes another wave of enemies, and allows further progress. once you actually get to the central tower, you'll have enough ammo to make things more manageable... until you get to the top and the cyberdemon guarding the exit. to actually kill it i had to scour the remainder of the map for additional supplies, including a bit of platforming to a secret with 100 cells, and even then it was barely enough.
MAP22 (Viscera): this map brings great vibes with your arrival shrouded in a rain of blood and a number of archviles surrounding you before taking up their positions around the map. it's relatively easy to get started with and there's some surprisingly chill exploration to get things started. but getting out of the level requires all three keys and each key is guarded by a tough arena fight. there's generally very close quarters, and your best bet is trying to use rockets and avoiding running out of space. of particular note is the red key fight which spawns a massive number of imps and no matter where you stand they'll be coming at you from multiple directions simultaneously. there is a plasma rifle in this level and a decent supply of cells. but you'll want to save 200 or so of those for the cyberdemon at the end. there's a spider mastermind too but it's easily dispatched with the super shotgun.
MAP23 (Tribulation): an oddly un-hell like level, unless your vision of hell involves a lot of neon purple. this map seems pretty short and lightweight compared to the what's come before that. there are a few archviles early on in the level that can seem a little tricky but with a little poking around there's more cover than you might expect. clearing the battlements can be a bit tricky as it features a lot of tight uphill angles, but creative chaingun usage helps a lot. don't forget the berserk up there like i did, otherwise you're going to have a spicy battle against the pinkies in the next room. the hardest part of the way out is the four annihilators that get sprung on you, but solving that largely depends on getting them to infight and nothing else. with that in hand you'll have more than enough rockets and cells to steamroll the rest of the map, including the now-seemingly-obligatory cyberdemon.
MAP24 (Gossamer): man this is a great map, easily the best of the past two episodes. there are a ton of great fights set against a blood-flooded castle with neon-red highlights. the initial area has a lot of criss-crossing lines of sight that are difficult to detangle, but you'll also get a tons of ammo and weapons relatively quickly. the initial bloody area rapidly lowers and fills with monsters, but this is incredibly loud, at least on my source port. the outside area you got to next is especially visually impressive with tons of vine covered buildings, a tower in the distance in flames, and neon red steps to raise. going inside leads to much tighter and generally more threatening encounters. it even pulls plutonia's favorite trick once - putting an archvile in a cage with chaingunners and letting it revive them over and over until your rockets can cut through them and actually get the archvile. the finale feels suitably epic with a series of escalating encounters leading to a final showdown with four cyberdemons that actually feels earned (and they give you a BFG so it's not so bad). great stuff.
MAP25 (Slave): on the one hand, this is a spectacularly bloody finale to the hell episode. on the other hand, it is exactly one fight in one room in a big pool of blood. to be clear, it's a lot of fun, but it is just 241 enemies in a room. clearing it out is largely a factor of making space for yourself, using your BFG shots efficiently, and letting infighting take care of the rest. moving at a consistent pace in circle will get the cyberdemons in the center to deal with a ton of problems for you while getting greatly weakend themselves. there's a pretty limited number of cells, so get out your rocket launcher for the cleanup. just watch the skies for cacodemons so you don't blow yourself up.

Chapter VI: Hallowed
MAP26 (Transcendence): welcome to... heaven? it's surprisingly full of demons up here. there's a lot of enemies here - more than any of the hell levels, weirdly - and in an unusual gimmick you'll mostly be working with the BFG and the rocket launcher, although the pistol and berserk fists are available and occasionally useful. there's a nifty gimmick at the start - before picking up any weapons, two hell knights block your path but are facing away from you. you can either plink away with the pistol, try your luck with your fists, or bump into one, lure it away, and run past to freedom. then you pick up the BFG and all heaven breaks loose. this levels not particularly big but it is pretty beautifully detailed. the six or so rooms can be tackled in any particular order, but you'll eventually have to find your way to three switches to cut the chains holding up the tower blocking your forward progress - a pretty impressive visual feat. a lot of the encounters are pretty straightforward if very meaty but anything with astral cacodemons will have you running for cover without a plasma rifle or chaingun. gibbing imps or zombiemen with the rocket launcher is endlessly satisfying even if it isn't the first choice i'd usually make. there's some odd cyberdemon placement but the most annoying part is the platforming requires for one of the switches. oh and i've finally picked up on how to deal with groups of annihilators - provoke them, hide around a corner, and wait for the fireworks to wrap up.
MAP27 (Heliopolis): another really nice looking map, although there's so much geometry in this one that it caused the framerate in dsda-doom to notably worsen. this is another open-layout map that's not too big, although there's considerably fewer enemies than the preceding one and somewhat more exploration. there's a dozen or so switches that need to get hit to exit and you can hit them in more or less any order. a lot of these switches grant access to weapons and ammo, but there are also pretty nasty traps associated with a lot of them. if you're not careful you can easily find yourself running for your life without the ammo to deal with what you just spawned. the two arena fights are even more potentially dangerous as exiting is blocked for a certain period of time. fortunately they both have a plasma rifle and a good supply of cells, so it shouldn't be a problem, especially if you get the two annihilators in one of the arenas to take out their frustrations on each other. this level does have the feature of many such open-ended maps where your routing can have significant impact on how tight the ammo is. if you know where the BFG is and make a beeline to it, that can save you a bunch of cells against the one cyberdemon, and possibly in other areas as well. if you don't find it until the end of the map, like me, you may find yourself scrounging through fallen hitscanners hoping to put together enough ammo to take out the final spider mastermind.
MAP28 (Judgement): another arena map, relatively small in scale, although it has the highest monster count of those types of levels. starting the map is by far the most dangerous part of this, as trying to get the rocket launcher drops you into a pit with a cyberdemon and archvile having line of sight over large chunks of it. taking out the archvile helps a lot, but it's probably going to require a suicidal charge up the stairs with the rocket launcher as it's not really possible to get a clean shot on it from the bottom of the pit. the other initial wing is somewhat easier, but it still requires deft super shotgun work and not running into a cyberdemon rocket. clearing both of those allows you to access the plasma rifle and the rest of the level. this gets pretty messy quickly as there's a wide variety of monsters and they start infighting basically immediately. unfortunately astral cacodemons have a superior angle, generally, and can hunt you down very quickly, so spend your plasma there if you can. the last 5/6ths of the monster kills wraps up way faster than the first 1/6th and you'll be on your way before you know it.
MAP29 (Elysium): occupying the coveted "last real map before the icon of sin" slot, this map pulls out all the stops to feel like a finale. most important the music - a 43-minute midi track called the godhood suite by jimmy paddock. the map itself has a particularly unusual gimmick - winged jump pads that carry you around the map. they're a little janky, but they feel like black magic, so that's okay. there's some frame rate drops here, and given the maps this happened on i think this might be tied to the trees somehow? but there are lots of memorable encounters in this level. somehow the one i had the most trouble with had two cyberdemons sniping you while imps and hell knights flood in from the side. i eventually developed a consistent strategy but it took a lot more effort than i would have thought. the cave you fall into is also pretty fun and ends with the biggest wave of astral cacodemons in the wad - easier than you might thing if you can get them to group up a bit, but certainly not to be underestimated. and of course, there's one last dark cave full of specters to annoy you. collcting the two keys on offer here allows you to teleport to the final area, a night-time remix of the very first level that now fills up with more than twice as many enemies as the first level had - and they're far more dangerous on average, with two cyberdemons claiming the high ground right away to cap it all off. you do get a BFG for this last section, but there aren't a ton of great opportunities to use it as the level is pretty linear. however you choose to dish out damage it's about finding safe spots to stand your ground, being efficient with your shots, and of course, not dying. a great-but-inconsistent sendoff to a great-but-inconsistent wad.
MAP30 (Eternity): oh dear. an ambitious finale that feels completely unsuited to what doom is capable of. the custom boss, archangelus, can fly incredibly quickly, shoot barrages of mancubus or arachnotron projectiles, and also use the archvile's flame attack. after chipping away at a bit of his health (he has... 15000 health, or about 3.75 cyberdemons, or 15 barons), the walls surrounding the arena lower, you can grab a BFG, and 665 demons flood the space to really get the party started. surprisingly archangelus can infight with the other monsters, but is too dangerous and fast for them to meaningfully retaliate in most cases. it's also possible at this point for him to spawn additional monsters. this is also where you find there's much less ammo in the arena than you'd hope - it's perfectly possible to run out. and after reaching 5000 health the boss gets even faster and shoots even more projectiles. in the end i swiped decino's strategy of using the BFG while the archvile flame attack was being charged and just eating the damage, which is probably the only consistent way of dealing with the last phase.