The secret sniffing pays off with the switch at the top since it's the only way to conquer another army of Cyberdemons, this one by way of telefrags which the author uses to mercifully nullify hard to kill or reach obstacles that appear in the first two portions. If you didn't know, the last one is Holy Hell, apparently made by the enigmatic author behind Impossible: A New Reality. Some might even make a cheeky mega-slaughter level and similarly bust it into four pieces while drawing more from Hell Revealed than Alien Vendetta. Players either quickly quit in distaste or press on and move toward the subsequent scintillating spectacles.

The latter can be such a fickle component so it's to Pham's advantage that he wades into the thick of it at the onset beating on his Vrack drum, leaving zero ambiguity to where your journey will take you. Authors are free to build up as much window dressing as desired to make up the eye-popping encroachments and since the focus is on the encounters the player relies on the extravagance of the action for their immersion rather than the plausibility of the map's progression, eclipsing a need for aspirations toward non-linearity, or an appeal to atmosphere. I think that the gameplay of slaughter is naturally complementary to linear adventure levels. The comparison gets a little dicey afterward but I'd be surprised if the big stair climb wasn't partly derived from the Cyberdemon junction in 'Halek'. 'Misri Halek' and Deus Vult are planted firmly on the second end of the line and while Malde's masterpiece is not about the slaughter DV parallels it beginning with a series of moodily lit orthogonal chambers before the character of the man-made structures gives way to a crack in the universe leading you straight to Hell. The other slides toward maps dominated by linear flow and drawing the player through using their encounter design and similarly interesting visuals. On one end are works which are non-linear or even sandbox-like in design and oriented toward exploration, sometimes involving meticulously constructed and detailed environments. The sense of adventure is a potential element in Doom WADs and maps that utilize it fall on a spectrum spanning between two poles. The other recorded Alien Vendetta influence is the iconic 'Misri Halek', one of my favorite adventure levels.

Deus vult 2 doom