Daniel Remar is better known for his standalone games — stuff like Hyper Princess Pitch, or two of my all-time favorite games, Iji and Hero Core. He’s so much more known for those that I didn’t even realize he made Doom WADs until a few weeks ago.
If the dude makes such brilliant games, he must make some dope Doom WADs, right? Well, out of the six WADs he hosts on his website, I’ve picked out three that I’d consider awesome, if a little basic. They’re presented here in what I think is chronological order; unfortunately they aren’t packaged with documentation, so release dates and other info isn’t available.
I’m not going to claim that any of these maps are Shakespeare. They don’t shake the foundations of the Doom mapping community. But I did enjoy all three of them immensely for what they are: lighthearted, clever little gameplay experiments designed by a mapper who was just having fun making them.
A quick note before we start: these all play in Doom II’s Map01 slot, but none replace or change the music, so be ready to get tired of D_RUNNIN. You may want to switch the music off or change it to a track that seems more fitting.
Icon
Icon is an expanded take on Doom II’s final map, and what Remar’s description claims is a “harder version” of that Icon of Sin showdown. I’d actually argue that it’s easier simply by virtue of leaving out the rocket timing element. Instead of the gimmick of riding an elevator up to shoot rockets into the Icon’s brain, Icon asks you to survive more long-term. You progress through the Icon battle in phases, bouncing between two main platforms, flipping tons of switches, and fighting the infinitely-spawning hordes as you go. It’s simple and maybe a little sloppy (why are you given all these weapons when you’ll only use the BFG?), but the slaughter is entertaining and the whole map feels like cracking a series of locks on some kind of vault, granting direct entry to the Icon’s sensitive brain meats. It’s a typical Map30 affair, but on the higher-quality end of what you might see cap off any number of ’90s megaWADs.
Citywars
In some ways Citywars feels like the logical end point of a design style of Remar’s you can see in his WADs Carnage and Assault (which we’ll be skipping here). All three of the above mentioned WADs would be laughed off of most modern Doom players’ hard drives for being too flat, too blandly-textured, too simple, too square. Remar sure does loves his orthogonal, mazelike layouts, but Citywars is the first time that that kind of design feels genuinely compelling, partially because at least this time he’s experimenting with some small height variation. The conceit of the map is that you’re heading into a city controlled by three rival demonic gangs, so most of the action therefore takes place in the flat, gridbased streets, but you’ll occasionally take a welcome trip way up to the roofs for some exciting leaps of faith. There’s a degree of openness and nonlinearity, plus all that oldschool Doom II cityscape appeal.
Evilcore
The best of Remar’s offerings is Evilcore — his first map in 15 years. It’s the smallest in terms of square footage, and doesn’t have a super large monster count, but it’s got the market cornered on excitement-per-minute. Evilcore is a single arena that constantly opens up and expands as you flip switches and release newer and bigger waves of enemies. Of particular note is an elevated platform of imps in the center of the arena who are unkillable due to a cleverly-placed arch-vile, and provide constant fire to keep you moving especially when you have to turn your back to fight a newly-released mob of demons. There are points when the map feels almost like a bullet hell game… which is fitting for a WAD with a title that may or may not be a nod to Remar’s vaguely bullet hell-ish Hero Core.
Icon, Citywars, and Evilcore all require DOOM2.WAD and will run in vanilla Doom or any source port under the sun. If you’re not sure how to get the maps running, this may help. And for more awesome WADs, be sure to check these out!