You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.

I really do find it shocking that I’ve written so much about this game. Or I haven’t really the game has acted as catalyst to talk about other stuff related to the game.

I’m hoping those that read these posts are enjoying them.

“Chop, chop, chop, a perfect killing machine” Alice Cooper, Chop, chop,chop

E2M7 Spawning Vats

There is a kind of xylophone flurry (I’m not a musician so don’t know the correct way to describe this) with the music as I start this level that catches me by surprise. At first I thought it was coming from the tv and the program I’m watching. It’s almost light, and whimsical. An interesting contrast to the slaughter taking place. I really like this change in tone. A quick google tells me this bit of music is called Waltz of the Demons.

I’ve not really talked about the music. Let’s face it you aren’t playing the game for its soundtrack. However only a fool would dismiss the importance of it.

The music can help set the tone, adds atmosphere, and can build tension.

A lot of the music in Doom is influenced by metal. It reflects the music tastes of the two Johns and the fast paced, peddle to the metal (pun intended) action of Doom itself. It’s as if the two were made for each other.

Which makes these more atmospheric pieces more impactful within the game for me.

I have to admit I’d love to have soundtrack on CD. But my Google skills are letting me down on this one.

E2M8 Tower of Babel

When a level starts by giving you a room full of boxes of rockets. You know nothing good is about to happen. And whatever it is you just might need lots of rockets to take it down.

I’m also not slow in picking up an earlier hint of something bad was on this level. Mutilated barons of hell hanging on doors is a pretty big clue something bigger and badder is ahead.

It’s time to meet the Cyberdemon. A monstrosity of hell that fires rockets. Whose metallic thuds as he stomps around the level are your clue of his whereabouts when you can’t see him.

Fire, run, hide. Repeat. Are the tactics of the hour.

I’m not counting the number of rockets I’ve fired in the general direction of the Cyberdemon. But it’s a lot. I’m having to resupply.

Eventually my final salvo of rockets brings the Cyberdemon to its knees.

Onwards to Hell itself…

Inferno

The third and final scenario of the series. I’m coming to the end of my original journey.

Although there are similarities to the last time I completed Doom up in County Durham. There is very little in common with the very first time I played the game.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. A tired cliche for sure. But apt. A lot of life has happened over the thirty years since.

I’ve grown a lot. Something my ex-wife would probably disagree with. I am almost a different person.

Looking back I hardly recognise the person I was back in the early nineties.

I’m still trying to handle Dad’s death five years earlier. I don’t know it, or more likely not really acknowledging the signs that I’m depressed.

My only friends are work colleagues who I never socialised with, except on the odd pub crawl that the engineers had once in a while.

Being brutally honest I was a bit (understatement) of a dick back then too. Yeah a much bigger one than I am now. How much was fallout from Dad dying? It had to be some of it. But to be fair I was a dick before that (I owe a lot of people in my past apologies).

A lot of the stuff we did at work is now unacceptable and would have got all of us fired. It can’t just be dismissed as things were different then.

Thankfully the world was changing for the better around us.

Yes I’m ashamed of the person I was back then. I’m glad they no longer exist.

E3M1 Hell Keep

“I went down, down, down and the flames went higher” Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire

Thrown into the deep end against a couple of imps, and a cacodemon! All I have is my fists and a pistol. The fight hardly seems fair.

E3M2 Slough of Despair

I remember this level. Not the details. But the labyrinth of columns with marines, imps, cacodemons, and lost souls round every corner. Or it feels that way. Running around desperate for ammo of any kind.

The level makes very little sense until you look at the level map. It’s a hand!

Somehow I get through the level with the minimum of ammo. It’s a modern day miracle.

E3M3 Pandemonium

Wow some of the imagery on this level falls into dark shit.

There is no doubt where we are.

E3M4 House of Pain

I have a BFG!

Maybe I’d of gotten this weapon earlier if my secret room finding skills were better. I’ll never know unless I get better at finding those hidden rooms.

It one shots the baron of hell I release when I open the door to a room next to where I found the bfg.

Now I just need to make sure I keep it fuelled up ready for moments like this.

Onto the next level…