And so it ends with a whimper. I finished this whole “10 Years of Doom” business this week, wrapping it all up with the RTC-3057 demo (despite the full release being available. I know, I know). Turns out, it’s pretty busted in newer versions of ZDoom, with missing textures, bugged music cues, and an unusable pistol. Also, the final puzzle is hard to complete even when you know the solution. So, kind of a wet thud. But there were plenty of good moments along the way. And it also frees me up to start playing WADs that were made in the last decade. I’ve already played some really promising stuff from 2004, one of which I’ll probably write about next week. As for this week, though, we go back even further, to a culture long forgotten by time... *cue wavy dissolve*

The Temple of Doom

Custom textures can often have an unintentionally adverse affect on a WAD. Sometimes authors try to insinuate their own textures into the midst of id’s stock textures in ways that don’t end up working. Sometimes the aesthetic created by them doesn’t really mesh with Doom’s demon menagerie in a pleasing way. Sometimes the textures are just bad. Thankfully, 2001’s Brotherhood of Ruin, or Ruinbros, avoids all of the pitfalls one might normally associate with new textures and manages to create with its seven levels a compelling and unique theme that also seems perfectly suited for shotgun fire and Revenants.

Right down to its striking, blood-red skybox, this is an ode to Mazaera, Hexen II’s fictionalized Mesoamerican continent. Cribbing from Raven games is nothing unheard of (quite the contrary, actually), but what is unusual is just how well it works in this instance. Oftentimes maps that lean heavily on Heretic or Hexen textures end up making Doom’s weapons and monsters seem like anachronisms. “Why is there a Cyberdemon in this medieval castle?” you might rightfully ask. Such thoughts never really occurred to me while playing Ruinbros; seeing hellspawn stalk the corridors of a crumbling Aztec temple never so much as raised an eyebrow. It probably helps that the textures used here are far less garish than Heretic’s, so Doom’s enemies don’t stand out quite as much. It also might help that I have a deep admiration for Pathways into Darkness, Bungie’s proto-System Shock by way of the Yucatán, so anything that reminds me of it even superficially gets a pass.

Okay, that last bit was somewhat off the mark. Ruinbros neither gets a pass nor does it need one. It’s a legitimately stellar set of maps. My first experience with its author, Kristian Aro, was through 2002: A Doom Odyssey, where he contributed half the maps for E1. If you read my thoughts on ADO two weeks back you’ll know that I wasn’t much of a fan of it, and that I furthermore thought that E1 was the weakest of the four episodes. Well, Mr. Aro must work better alone, then, as these maps are far better and far more memorable than his five contributions to ADO.

All of the levels on display look great and are thoughtfully constructed, with stepped pyramids, musty temples, and rocky environs being the order of the day. Aro shows a good handle on level progression, often giving you glimpses of where you need to go before you have the means to get there. This means that even though you might not know what a particular switch did, you’ll usually have a pretty good idea. There’s not too much backtracking, either, and when there is you’re usually given something to fight for your trouble. Aro also doesn’t throw in keys just for the sake of padding, which I very much appreciate. In fact, map length is just about perfect, with most being medium-sized endeavours that end right about where you would want them to, i.e., just before you get combat fatigue.

Its good that none of these levels are too long because Aro definitely doesn’t take it easy on you. Apart from Zombiemen, pretty much all the Doom cast is present and accounted for. You’re usually not going to see them in huge numbers, mind you, but in many cases movement is restricted such that just a couple of well-placed baddies can be a handful. Most encounters are fair, though, meaning that you’re rarely put in a situation where you’re guaranteed to take damage. Ammo distribution is tight enough that taking too many errant shots will have you feeling the pinch, and relying heavily on any one weapon isn’t an option much of the time. There are also a couple of Indiana Jones-style crusher traps that are notable for at least being thematically appropriate, which can’t be said of many maps that use them. If I could criticize anything about the encounters it would be the repeated use of enemies on inaccessible ledges, which are often found in awkward places where they don’t pose much of a threat at all, if any.

Brotherhood of Ruin is just an overall pleasant experience, and there’s really nothing bad I can say about it that doesn’t feel like nitpicking. Maybe if you hate fighting in close quarters you won’t like it, or if you just don’t like custom textures (Do those people exist? I don’t know). Well, the text file does say that it’s eleven levels long when it’s really only seven, so… I guess it’s total garbage and I should retract everything I just said. But really, if you’re at all interested in Doom WADs you should give this a spin. It’s fun. It’s something you haven’t seen before. In short, it’s the reason you play Doom WADs.

Cookin' with Gas

With the albatross of my original goal no longer draped around my neck, I’ll probably start taking more liberties with what WADs I choose to play from here on out. Looking ahead to the 2004 Cacowards I see that it includes Hell Revealed 2, which I’m already thinking about skipping. I have tremendous respect for the original, which popularized if not created an entire Doom map genre, but two slaughtermap megaWADs in a six-month span might be too much. I don’t know yet. I’ll cross or not cross that bridge when I get to it. In the meantime, I’m not going to stop playing Doom, which means I’m probably not going to stop writing about it either. So look out for that.